Back Up and Restore Your Controller on CoPilot UI

Creating regular backups of your Aviatrix Controller is essential to ensure the security and integrity of your network configurations.

This section discusses how to back up Controller Configuration and restore the backups on CoPilot UI.

Starting from CoPilot version 3.14, you have the option to back up and restore your Aviatrix Controller directly from the CoPilot UI.

If you are using CoPilot version 3.13 or earlier, you can perform the Aviatrix Controller backup and restore directly from the Controller UI. See Back up and Restore Your Controller on Controller UI for more details.

Check Your Controller Version Compatibility

Starting from Controller v7.0, you can back up and restore Controller from CoPilot UI.

See Version Requirements for Controller and CoPilot Backup and Restore for more details.

Configure External Storage

You must configure external storage before you back up and restore Controller Configuration.

  1. Log into your CoPilot UI.

  2. From Settings > Maintenance > Back Up & Restore > Manage Backups > External Storage, click Configure.

  3. Select the appropriate Cloud Type for the Location.

    • For AWS:

      • Select the Account name.

      • Populate the Bucket Name.

    • For GCP

      • Select the Account name.

      • Populate the Bucket Name.

    • For OCI:

      • Select the Account name.

      • Select a region.

      • Populate the Bucket Name.

    • For Azure Arm/Azure Government/ARM China/AWS China/AWS GovCloud

      • Select the Account name.

      • Select a Region, Storage Name, and Container Name.

  4. Click Save to create an association with an external storage.

Back Up Your Controller Configuration on CoPilot UI

To back up your Aviatrix Controller Configuration on CoPilot UI, perform the following steps:

  1. Log into your CoPilot UI.

  2. From Settings > Maintenance > Back Up & Restore > Back Up Controller, click Back Up Now to initiate the backup process.

  3. (Optional) Click the caret (^) next to the Backup Now button and select Edit Configuration to modify the automatic Backup schedule. See Modify Automatic Backup Schedule for Controller for more details

CoPilot will create a backup file containing all your Controller configurations, including network settings, gateways, and security policies. It is recommended to store the backup file in a secure location for future use.

Modify Automatic Backup Schedule for Controller

The Aviatrix CoPilot UI allows you to customize the automatic backup schedule for your Aviatrix Controller. Once you have modified the automatic backup schedule, the CoPilot UI will update the backup settings accordingly. This allows you to customize the backup frequency and timing to align with your specific requirements.

To modify the automatic backup schedule for Controller, perform the following steps:

  1. Log into your CoPilot UI.

  2. From Settings > Maintenance > Back Up & Restore > Back Up Controller, click the caret (^) next to Backup Now and select Edit Configuration to modify the backup schedule.

  3. In the Modify Automatic Backup Schedule for Controller dialog, choose the desired frequency for the backups. You can select either daily or weekly backups.

  4. Specify the time when you want the backups to be performed. Note that the time is in UTC format.

  5. Enter the maximum number of backups that to be saved to the external storage. The default value is set to 1.

  6. Click Save to save your changes.

Restore your Controller Configuration on CoPilot UI

Restoring your Aviatrix Controller configuration from a backup is a crucial step in recovering your network settings in the event of a failure or when migrating to a new Controller.

  1. Go to Settings > Maintenance > Back Up & Restore > Restore Controller, click Restore.

  2. Select the appropriate Cloud Type for the Location.

  3. Enter the access key, secret key, and bucket name that used for the CoPilot backup.

  4. Select the file name of the backup file.

  5. Click Save.

Note that restoring your Controller configuration will overwrite the existing configuration on your Controller. Therefore, ensure that you have selected the correct backup and have a backup of any recent changes or configurations made after the backup.

Restore Notes

  • Make sure your Controller backup and Controller restore take place in the same CSP (Cloud Service Provider): AWS, Azure, or GCP and share the same basic configuration. For example, an AWS backup can only restore to another AWS Controller.

  • Note that in the case of AWS backups, an AWS Controller set up with IAM roles cannot backup and restore to an AWS Controller set up with a secret key, or vice versa.

  • We only support restoring Controller backup to a brand new Aviatrix Controller.

Initialize a New Controller

If you are starting from a new Controller, follow these steps to get started:

  1. Log into the Controller with the admin username and the default password.

  2. Follow the initial steps to get the Controller up and running:

    1. Shut down the older Controller.

    2. Transfer the IP address to the new Controller.

    3. Proceed to configure the new Controller by entering an email address.

    4. Change your admin password.

    5. Enter or skip the proxy configuration.

    6. Allow the upgrade to run.

Restore Controller Configurations on CoPilot UI

Follow the steps below to restore your Controller configuration on CoPilot UI:

  1. Log into your CoPilot UI.

  2. From Settings > Maintenance > Back Up & Restore > Restore Controller, click Restore.

  3. On the "Restore Controller" page:

    • Select a Cloud Type for the Location:

    • For AWS:

      • If you would like to use an existing account, please make sure you create one Access Account only with the exact Access Account Name that was used in your previous Controller. Toggle the Use Cloud Account Name button to on and select the account. Otherwise, enter an Access Key and Secret Key.

      • Enter the Bucket and File Name of the file to restore. The file name can be obtained from the external storage that is configured to store your backups. It may display as "CloudN_<Controller Private IP>_save-cloudx-config.enc".

    • For Azure:

      • Enter the Subscription ID and Directory ID.

      • Enter the Application Client ID and Application Client Secret.

      • Enter the Storage Name, Container Name, and File Name of the file to restore. The file name can be obtained from the external storage that is configured to store your backups. It may display as "CloudN_<Controller Private IP>_save-cloudx-config.enc".

    • For GCP:

      • Enter the Bucket Name.

      • Upload the GCP Project Credentials.

      • Enter the File Name of the file to restore. The file name can be obtained from the external storage that is configured to store your backups.

For ARM China: Enter the Subscription ID and Directory ID. Enter the Application Client ID and Application Client Secret. ** Enter the Storage Name, Container Name, and File Name of the file to restore. The file name can be obtained from the external storage that is configured to store your backups. It may display as "CloudN_<Controller Private IP>_save-cloudx-config.enc".

  • For OCI:

    • If you would like to use an existing account, please make sure you create one Access Account only with the exact Access Account Name that was used in your previous Controller. Toggle the Use Cloud Account Name button to on and select the account. Otherwise, enter a Tenancy OCID, User OCID, Compartment OCID. And upload an OCI Private Key. was used in your previous Controller. Mark the Use Cloud Account Name checkbox and select the account. Otherwise, enter a Tenancy OCID, User OCID, Compartment OCID. And upload an OCI Private Key. <again no checkbox, just a toggle named Use Existing Account>

    • Enter the Bucket, Region and File Name of the file to restore. The file name can be obtained from the external storage that is configured to store your backups. It may display as "CloudN_<Controller Private IP>_save-cloudx-config.enc".

      1. Click Save to initiate the restoration process.

      2. The restoration process will begin, and you will see a message indicating that successfully downloaded a backup file.

Once the restoration is completed, you will receive a confirmation message indicating the successful restoration of your Controller configuration.

Verify that your network settings and configurations have been restored correctly by checking the functionality of your Aviatrix Controller.

AWS Encrypted Backups

AWS S3 allows uploaded backup files to be encrypted in the server side for more secure storage. The encryption is all done in the AWS S3 server side. This server side secure storage is in addition to the already encrypted Aviatrix Controller backups.

Follow the steps below to enable AWS Encrypted backups:

  1. Create AWS S3 bucket.

    image::controller/s3-create.png

  2. After configuring other bucket properties, configure bucket server side encryption by selecting either Server-side encryption with AWS Key Management Service keys (SSE-KMS) or Dual-layer server-side encryption with AWS Key Management Service keys (DSSE-KMS).

    image::controller/s3-select-default-encryption.png

image::controller/s3-select-encryption.png

  1. Click Create a KMS key to create a new key. A separate tab opens where you can configure and save the key.

  2. After the key is saved, go back to the Create bucket tab and enter the key in the AWS KMS key ARN field.

  3. Click Create bucket.

Azure Private Link enables you to access Azure PaaS Services (for example, Azure Storage and SQL Database) and Azure hosted customer-owned/partner services over a private endpoint in your virtual network. Traffic between your virtual network and the service travels the Microsoft backbone network. Exposing your service to the public internet is no longer necessary.

By leveraging the Azure private link, the Controller backups will happen privately from your VNet so that your blob storage account does not need to be exposed to the outside world.

  1. Create an Azure Storage Account.

  2. Set up the Storage Account for Private Link:

    1. On the Networking tab for the storage account creation, select Private endpoint for the connectivity method.

    2. Add a new private endpoint with the target of the blob storage resource and enable DNS Integration.

    If you currently have existing private endpoints deployed, you may need to leverage an existing private zone in another subscription. This must be completed through the dedicated private endpoint creation workflow. For additional assistance with this setup please reach out to an Aviatrix Solution Engineer.

  3. Verify Backup through Controller.

Once successful, backing up traffic from the Controller will be performed privately across private link so that associated storage account does not need to be accessible publicly.

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