Zimbra NE: Disaster Recovery blues

[generic31]

Hello,
I am using an evaluation version of Zimbra 4.5 Network Edition (zcs-NETWORK-4.5.4_GA_763.RHEL4_64). The OS is RHEL 4 64-bit edition.
As a part of evaluation, I tested the Disaster Recovery procedure as outlined in :

http://wiki.zimbra.com/index.php?tit...aster_Recovery

The 'DR' server was again a RHEL 4 64-bit box. At the end, I was able to restore the mails etc. for the users.

However, the command,

zmbackup -f -s mail.domain.com -a all

returns the following error:

Error occurred: authentication failed for zimbra

Interestingly, the backup allowed by the GUI mode is possible and completes successfully. But no CLI commands related to backup work- they all return the same error.

There are three issues which bother me and could narrow down the extent of the problem:

1) As per the Wiki, the backup files of the old server need to be copied on the new 'DR' server. Does this mean only /opt/zimbra/backup directory on the original server or some other files need to be backed up too?

2) The wiki mentions the following step:

Remove any old backup sessions because these sessions are no longer valid. Type rm -rf /opt/zimbra/redolog/* /opt/zimbra/backup/*

The presence of /opt/zimbra/redolog in above command is something which I can't understand. Does the folder have to be copied from old server? It's not at all mentioned in the Wiki.

3) The restoration of LDAP directory server is also not clear. It's mentioned that:

To restore the LDAP, type zmrestoreldap -lb <latest_label>.
If you are restoring large number of accounts, you may want to run this command with nohup so that the session does not terminate. Note: To find the LDAP session label to restore, type zmrestoreldap –lbs.

Now, here what does the 'latest label' mean. If the latest is an incremental backup, do we need to use that instead of an older full backup?

Thanks in advance for help!

[jholder]

Can you file a bug on this? The worst that can happen is it get closed. I want to see if the QA team and repo this.

Thanks

[Cringer]

Having just had to do a disaster recovery, which seemed to go well, I have the exact same problem. I also had the exact same questions over the procedure, so this needs could do with some expanding.

Was a bug raised? if not I will happily raise either a bug or submit a new case.

-Si-

[phoenix]

I can't see anything after a quick search, I'd appreciate it if you could file a bug report.

[Cringer]

Bug 17553 added, just for everyone's reference.

[lee]

I attempted all the recommended disaster recovery methods documented by Zimbra and the wiki users but none would restore mailboxes. I gave up and used brute force by copying /opt/zimbra onto the new server from the last rsync backup. This required getting both the zimbra and postfix users/groups identical and a few files outside of /opt copied over but it worked well and I'm reconnecting my outlook users to the server now.

I will revisit Zimbra's recommended backup/restore processes on a development server but as it stands they lack the ability to do full disaster recovery.

[jholder]

Originally Posted by Cringer

Bug 17553 added, just for everyone's reference.

Cringer-
Can you send an e-mail to support@zimbra.com explaining your issue I don't think that yours is a bug.

Thanks
john

[Cringer]

Originally Posted by jholder

Cringer-
Can you send an e-mail to support@zimbra.com explaining your issue I don't think that yours is a bug.

Thanks
john

Sorry John, I can't quite remember what fixed it. I think it had something to do with re-setting the passwords, but its been a while ago, and I can't even remember what I had for breakfast last week, let alone something over a month ago.

-Si-