BMC Helix recommends you to back-up your data at regular intervals according to your requirements. You must backup PostgreSQL, Event OpenSearch, and Victoria Metrics data. You can use any method like BMC Helix Disaster Recovery, MinIO to MinIO, or backup tool like Velero to safely backup and avoid data loss.

To back up your data

Perform the following steps:

1. Go to /helix-on-prem-deployment-manager/utilities/disaster-recovery/dr-configs. 

2. In the disaster-recovery.config file, specify the values of the following parameters:

   Parameter	Description	Example
   BUCKET_NAME	Specify the name of the bucket used to back up data on MinIO.    Important: Use the following conventions while assigning a bucket name: It can have 3 to 63 characters. It can have lowercase letters, numbers, and hyphens (-). It must begin and end with an alphabet or a number. It must not start with xn-- as it might get interpreted as a Punycode format; for example, xn–bucketname. It must not have uppercase letters, periods (.), and underscores (_). It must not have hyphens next to periods (.); for example, my-.bucket.com or my.-bucket. It must not end with a hyphen or -s3alias (-s3alias is reserved for the MinIO bucket access point alias name).	BUCKET_NAME=helixdr-backup
   SITE_NAME	Specify a name to identify the site from where you want to back up data.  Important: Use only lowercase letters and numbers. Do not add any blank spaces. Do not use any special character except a hyphen.	SITE_NAME=India
   NAMESPACE	Specify the namespace where you have installed BMC Helix ITOM.	NAMESPACE=helix-cluster3
   DR_BACKUP_INTERVAL_IN_HOUR	Specify the backup interval in hours. You can set values between 1 to 24. We recommend that you set the value of this parameter based on the size of your data. The value that you specify defines the interval for backing up your data. For example, if you set the value of this parameter as 1 hour, data backup is performed at the start of every hour as per the cron schedule (0 */1 * * *). If your current cluster time is 2:15 P.M. on November 2: The first backup will occur at 3:00 P.M. This will be a complete data backup. Subsequent backups will occur at 4:00 P.M., 5:00 P.M., 6:00 P.M., and so on. These will be incremental backups.  At 3:00 P.M. on November 3, a complete data backup will occur. For example, if you set the value of this parameter as 3 hours, data backup is performed at the start of every third hour as per the cron schedule (0 */3 * * *).  If your current cluster time is 2:15 P.M. on November 2: The first backup will occur at 3:00 P.M. This will be a complete data backup. Subsequent backups will occur at 6:00 P.M., 9:00 P.M., and so on. These will be incremental backups.  At 3:00 P.M. on November 3, a complete data backup will occur. Important: For Victoria Metrics, the default interval is one hour. You cannot modify the default interval.	DR_BACKUP_INTERVAL_IN_HOUR=1
   DR_MAX_BACKUP_TO_RETAIN	Specify the number of days for which you want to retain the backed-up data.	DR_MAX_BACKUP_TO_RETAIN=5

   Important

   If you decide to configure disaster recovery for both BMC Helix ITOM and BMC Helix IT Service Management, make sure the backup schedules and retention periods are in sync.

3. To configure a data backup, run the following command: 

   ./disaster-recovery.sh backup 

   Logs get saved in the helix-on-prem-deployment-manager/logs directory. You can check the logs to monitor the progress, success, or failure of the data backup process.