Architecture¶
pbm-agent¶
pbm-agent is a process that runs backup, restore, delete and other operations available with Percona Backup for MongoDB.
A pbm-agent instance must run on each
mongod instance. This includes replica set nodes that are currently secondaries
and config server replica set nodes in a sharded cluster.
An operation is triggered when the pbm CLI makes an update to the PBM Control collection. All pbm-agents monitor changes to the PBM control collections but only one pbm-agent in each replica set will be elected to execute an operation. The elections are done by a random choice among secondary nodes. If no secondary nodes respond, then the pbm-agent on the primary node is elected for an operation.
The elected pbm-agent acquires a lock for an operation. This prevents mutually exclusive operations like backup and restore to be executed simultaneously.
When the operation is complete, the pbm-agent releases the lock and updates the PBM control collections.
PBM Command Line Utility (pbm)¶
pbm CLI is the command line tool with which you operate Percona Backup for MongoDB. pbm provides the pbm command that you will use manually in the shell. It will also
work as a command that can be executed in scripts (for example, by crond).
The set of pbm sub-commands enables you to manage backups in your MongoDB environment.
pbm uses PBM Control collections to communicate with pbm-agent processes. It starts and monitors backup or restore operations by updating and reading the corresponding PBM control collections for operations, log, etc. Likewise, it modifies the PBM config by saving it in the PBM Control collection for config values.
pbm does not have its own config and/or cache files. Setting the
PBM_MONGODB_URI environment variable in your shell is a
configuration-like step that should be done for practical ease though. (Without
PBM_MONGODB_URI the --mongodb-uri command line argument will need to
be specified each time.)
To learn how to set the PBM_MONGODB_URI environment variable, see Set the MongoDB connection URI for pbm CLI. For more information about MongoDB URI connection strings, see Authentication.
PBM Control Collections¶
The config and state (current and historical) for backups is stored in
collections in the MongoDB cluster or non-sharded replica set itself. These are
put in the system admin db to keep them
cleanly separated from user db namespaces.
In sharded clusters, this is the admin db of the config server replica set. In a non-sharded replica set, the PBM Control Collections are stored in
admin db of the replica set itself.
admin.pbmBackups - Log / status of each backup
admin.pbmAgents - Contains information about
pbm-agentsstatuses and healthadmin.pbmConfig - Contains configuration information for Percona Backup for MongoDB
admin.pbmCmd - Is used to define and trigger operations
admin.pbmLock - pbm-agent synchronization-lock structure
admin.pbmLockOp - Is used to coordinate operations that are not mutually-exclusive such as make backup and delete backup.
admin.pbmLog - Stores log information from all
pbm-agentsin the MongoDB environment. Available in Percona Backup for MongoDB as of version 1.4.0admin.pbmOpLog - Stores operation IDs
admin.pbmPITRChunks - Stores Point-in-Time Recovery oplog slices
admin.pbmPITRState - Contains current state of Point-in-Time Recovery incremental backups
admin.pbmRestores - Contains restore history and the restore state for all replica sets
admin.pbmStatus - Stores Percona Backup for MongoDB status records
The pbm command line tool creates these collections as needed. You do not
have to maintain these collections, but you should not drop them unnecessarily
either. Dropping them during a backup will cause an abort of the backup.
Filling the config collection is a prerequisite to using Percona Backup for MongoDB for executing backups or restores. (See config page later.)
Remote Backup Storage¶
Percona Backup for MongoDB saves your files to a directory. Conceptually in
the case of object store; actually if you are using filesystem-type remote
storage. Using pbm list, a user can scan this directory to find existing
backups even if they never used pbm on their computer before.
The files are prefixed with the (UTC) starting time of the backup. For each backup there is one metadata file. For each replica set, a backup includes the following:
A mongodump-format compressed archive that is the dump of collections
A (compressed) BSON file dump of the oplog covering the timespan of the backup.
The end time of the oplog slice(s) is the data-consistent point in time of a backup snapshot.
For details about supported backup storages, see Remote backup storage.