Backing up and restoring Crucible data

Crucible data can be backed up from the admin interface or command line. This page contains the command syntax, options and the required procedure to backup and restore your Crucible instance.

Backing up Crucible data

The Crucible admin backup process

1. Navigate to the Crucible Admin area (click the Administration link in the footer of any Crucible page).
2. Click Backup (under 'System' heading in the left navigation bar).
3. The File Path field indicates where the backup file (in .zip format) will be stored. You can manually edit this path to change it. Under 'Include', a list of check boxes is shown, with the following items:

On this page:

  • Plugins and their configuration data
  • SQL database
  • Web templates
  • Uploaded files and local copies of files under review.
  • Repository and application caches.
    (info) Repository and application caches contain temporary data stored from repository scans and library caches that improve startup time. Both will be recreated automatically by re-scanning the source repositories, so the backup files can be reduced by a significant amount by excluding these (if the cost of re-scanning is acceptable).

4. Once you have chosen your options, click Create Backup Now.

Screenshot: The Crucible Backup Screen

The Crucible command line backup process

(info) Your Crucible instance must be running during the backup.

  1. Open a command line interface on the Crucible server computer.
  2. Navigate to the <Crucible home directory>/bin/ directory.
  3. Run the backup command on the command line with the desired options.
  4. The backup is created as a new Zip archive file and placed in the FISHEYE_INST/backup/ directory.
    (info) Note that if your Crucible instance uses a custom FISHEYE_INST directory; make sure the environment variable is properly set when running the backup command.

Components of a Crucible backup

The Crucible backup is highly configurable and allows for many different configurations. This table shows the various components of the backup, what they are for and how they can be used.

Component

Purpose

Defaults

SQL Database

Refers to the SQL content database (used by both Fisheye and Crucible and containing all user profile data, reviews and their comments).

Backed up by default.

Cache

The cache contains data that reflects the state of Fisheye's repositories. Without it, Fisheye must re-scan its repositories after a backup is restored. The cache also contains OSGI library data that increases startup time. These too can be excluded and will be generated automatically when the application is started.

The cache is not backed up by default as it tends to be large (running a risk of pushing the maximum file size for Java backups), while also representing replaceable data.

Plugins

Plugins are 3rd-party extensions that you may have installed, and configuration for all plugins (this includes configuration for Crucible's set of standard plugins).

Configuration data for all plugins are backed up by default, as well as all plugins installed in FISHEYE_INST/var/plugins/user.

Templates

In this context, these are custom freemarker templates that you or your users have created. They live in FISHEYE_INST/template.

Templates are backed up by default. You can choose to exclude them from the backup if your templates directory is covered by some other backup mechanism.

Uploads

In this context, uploads refers to files which are added to Crucible via the web interface (such as patch file reviews). It also includes each repository-backed file that went under review, when Crucible is configured to make a local copy of every reviewed file.

Uploads are backed up by default. You can choose not to back them up for example when the FISHEYE_INST/var/data/uploads directory is already covered by some other backup mechanism.

ActiveObjectsConfiguration data stored by pluginsBacked up by default

Note that the backup will always include the configuration data (config.xml), your license file and the Fisheye user data.

Backup command line options

These examples are for use in a Linux-like operating system. When using these commands on Windows, use the file name fisheyectl.bat and use the correct slashes. Run the command from the <Crucible home directory>/bin/ directory.

The basic syntax of the backup command is as follows:

$ ./fisheyectl.sh backup [OPTIONS]

To see inline help for all backup options, run the following command in the <Crucible home directory>/bin/ directory:

$ ./fisheyectl.sh backup --help
OptionSwitchDescriptionDefault

Quiet mode

-q OR --quiet

Suppresses output

No

Output filename

-f OR --file

Specify a different path and filename to the FISHEYE_INST/backup/backup_YYYY-DD-MM_HHmm.zip file. When filename is omitted, the backup filename contains the date and time.

FISHEYE_INST/backup/ is the default directory.

Compression level

--compression OR -c

Sets the Zip compression level, from 1-9. Runs at level 6 if no argument is passed.

Yes (6)

Anonymize

-a OR --anonymise

Anonymizes the SQL database by replacing all text with 'x'. This is only useful when sending a backup to Atlassian as part of a support case. Please do not anonymize data unless the Support Engineer handling your support case has specifically requested the data anonymized (as often anonymized data will not help reproduce the issue).

No

Cache Backup

--cache

Include the repository caching files in the backup. These hold information gained from scanning the repositories and can be quite large (many gigabytes). However, it can shorten the time needed to re-scan the repositories after data is restored.

No. By default, the cache data is excluded from backups.

Command line examples

(info) These examples are for use in a Linux-like operating system. When using these commands on Windows, use the filename fisheyectl.bat and use the correct slashes. Run the command from the <Crucible home directory>/bin/ directory.

Backing up with compression of 9, quiet mode and setting an output location

$ ./fisheyectl.sh backup --compression 9 -q -f /application_backups/fisheye/20090215.zip

Backup including cache data (also includes all default components)

$ ./fisheyectl.sh backup --cache

Restoring a backup with cache data (also restores all default components)

$ ./fisheyectl.sh restore --cache

Advanced backup command line settings

In some cases it might be preferable to only backup a limited set of items. This could be useful when your instance uses an external database such as MySQL or PostgreSQL and your DBA has already configured automatic backups in the database. The commands below allow this.

Option

Switch

Description

Default

Exclude Plugins

--no-plugins

Excludes plugins from the backup.

No. By default, plugins are included in every backup.

Exclude Templates

--no-templates

Excludes templates from the backup.

No. By default, templates are included in every backup.

Exclude Uploads

--no-uploads

Excludes uploaded files (such as patch reviews, stored in Crucible's internal database) from the backup.

No. By default, uploads are included in every backup.

Exclude SQL Database

--no-sql

Excludes the SQL content database used by both Fisheye and Crucible.

No. By default, this data is included in every backup.

Show help

--help OR -h

Shows inline help on the command line.

No

Known limitations

Please note that the below limitations are common for any Java based backup tool.

Archives Containing Over 65535 Files
Versions of Java earlier than v1.6 (b25) are incapable of handling zip files that contain more than 65,535 files. The solution for this problem is to either upgrade to a version of Java later than v1.6 (b25), or ensure that the archive does not exceed the threshold (contains less than 65,535 files). The Fisheye cache (not included in backups by default) can be a contributor of many small files. Hence, exclude the cache from backups if this is likely to be a concern.

Archives Larger Than 4GB
Java has trouble reading and writing zip files that are larger than 4GB. As of release 1.5 Java appears capable of reliably creating archives that are over 4GB, but remains unable to extract them. For details see Sun's bug report. Also be aware of the fact that some file systems (including FAT32) have trouble with files larger than 4GB.

As a workaround, make sure you do not create archives that are larger than 4GB. The Fisheye cache (not included in backups by default) can be a contributor of a lot of small files (although these tend to compress very well). If you still want to archive everything and end up with an achive that is too large, consider creating separate backups for the Fisheye cache and uploaded files respectively.

Scheduling Crucible backups

To set a schedule for automatic backups, open the administration screen and click 'Backup' under 'System' on the left navigation bar. The 'Backup' page opens. Now, click the link 'Manage Scheduled Backups' at the bottom of the page. The 'Scheduled Backups' page opens.

On the 'Scheduled Backups' page, click 'Edit' to adjust the backup schedule. Set the desired options and click 'Save'.

The options for scheduled backups are detailed in the table below.

Option name

Description

Allowed Values

Disable Scheduled Backups

Stops regular backups from taking place.

On (disabled) or Off (enabled)

Backup path

The path where the backup .zip file will be stored.

Any system or network path that Fisheye or Crucible can access.

Backup file prefix

Characters that will be added to the beginning of the backup file name.

Any string of characters that can be used as part of a filename on the local operating system.

Backup file date pattern

Sets a date for the next (or initial) backup to take place.

Any valid date in the format yyyy_MM_dd (year, month, day of the month).

Backup frequency

Sets how often the backup will take place.

Can be set to 'every day', 'every Sunday', 'Monday to Friday' and 'first day of the month'.

Backup time (HH:mm)

The time when the backup will take place.

Any valid 24-hour time in the format HH:mm (hours, minutes).

Include

Specifies which items must be included in the backups (these components are explained at the top of this page).

As per the options for regular on-demand backup (These components are explained at the top of this page).

Screenshot: Scheduling Backups in Fisheye and Crucible

(info) Be aware that scheduled backups can fill up disks unless you regularly move or delete old archives.

Restoring Crucible data

Restoring Crucible data from the command line

(info) There is currently no way to restore a backup from the web interface because Crucible must be shut down during a data restore.

Restoring a backup will irreversibly overwrite the data of your installation with the data from the backup archive.
If you made a backup from production which connected to an external database, and restore this backup to a test server without specifying another database to restore too, you will drop and restore to your production database. Thus when restoring to a test server, always ensure you specify the correct database to restore to (or restore to an in-built database).

  1. Install Crucible into a new, empty directory (this must be the same version that the backup was created from, or later).
    (warning) Note that you cannot restore data into versions of Crucible which are older than the version that created the backup.
  2. Make sure the Crucible instance is not running.
  3. Open a command line interface on the Crucible server computer.
  4. Run the restore command on the command line with the desired options.
  5. The specified elements will be restored.
  6. Start the Crucible instance.
  7. When using Fisheye integrated with Crucible, you will need to re-index your repositories after restoring data, unless the backup archive was created with the --cache option.

Command line restore options

(info) These examples are for use in a Linux-like operating system. When using these commands on Windows, use the filename fisheyectl.bat and use the correct slashes. Run the command from the <Crucible home directory>/bin/ directory.

The basic syntax of the restore command is as follows:

$ ./fisheyectl.sh restore -f /path/to/backup_2009-10-02_1138.zip [OPTIONS]

To see inline help for all backup options, run the following command in the <Crucible home directory>/bin/ directory:

$ ./fisheyectl.sh restore --help

Restores a Fisheye/Crucible backup instance.
If you are using an external database (as opposed to the default built-in database), make sure the JDBC driver file is present in the FISHEYE_INST/lib directory when running restore.

Option

Switch

Description

Default

Suppress output

--quiet OR  -q

Suppress the output messages from the restore program on the command line.

No

Choose file to restore from

--file PATH/FILENAME OR -f PATH/FILENAME

Restore the backup from PATH/FILENAME.

Yes (required)

Show inline help

--help OR -h

Displays help for options on the command line.

No

Advanced command line restore settings

By default, the restore program will restore all items found in the backup archive (so if you included the caches using the --cache option, these will automatically be restored). However, it is possible to only restore a subset of items from the backup, by explicitly specifying the item names on the command line and only those will be restored.

Option

Switch

Description

Restore Fisheye cache

--cache

Restore the repository cache backup.

Restore plugins

--plugins

Restore 3rd-party plugins and their configuration data.

Restore templates

--templates

Restore freemarker templates from the backup (the restored instance will use the built-in templates).

Restore uploads

--uploads

Restore uploads (e.g. patch files uploaded into Crucible and contents of files under review).

Restore Crucible reviews

--sql

Restore the SQL database containing user profiles, reviews and review comments.

Set database type

--dbtype OR -t

SQL database type (mysql, postgresqlsqlserver2008sqlserver2012 or hsql). Only required when restoring to a database location different to that used at used at backup time.

Set JDBC URL

--jdbcurl OR -j 

JDBC URL of the SQL database. Only required when restoring to a database location different to that used at used at backup time (not applicable for hsql).

Set JDBC username

--username OR -u

JDBC username of the SQL database. Only required when restoring to a database location different to that used at used at backup time (not applicable for hsql).

JDBC password

--password OR -p 

JDBC password of the SQL database. Only required when restoring to a database location different to that used at used at backup time (not applicable for hsql).

JDBC class

--driver OR  -d

Specifies the JDBC driver class name needed to access the SQL database. Only required when restoring to a database location different to that used at used at backup time and when using a different JDBC driver than the standard driver associated with the database specified through --dbtype. (Not applicable for 'built-in'.)

Notes on migrating backup data

When the process restores a SQL database, it looks at the configuration data (config.xml) included in the backup archive to learn which database product was used and how to connect to it. When Crucible uses the built-in HSQLDB database (which is the default), the restored instance will also use that.
However, when the restored instance will use a different database than the backed up instance (for instance, HSQLDB was used at the time the backup was created, but it needs to be restored on MySQL), use the command line options to point the process to the new database.

Command line example: migrating backup data to MySQL

(info) These examples are for use in a Linux-like operating system. When using these commands on Windows, use the filename fisheyectl.bat and use the correct slashes. Run the command from the <Crucible home directory>/bin/ directory.

Restoring to a Crucible instance that uses a different database (ensure the mysql driver jar file is present in the FISHEYE_INST/lib directory)

$ ./fisheyectl.sh restore \
--username john \
--password smith \
--jdbcurl jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/crucible \
--dbtype mysql \
--file /path/to/backup_2009-10-02_1138.zip
Last modified on Oct 24, 2018

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