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How Your Data is Backed Up

Mitchell Paul-Soumis Updated by Mitchell Paul-Soumis

Read Time: 5 mins

As Sonar is hosted on Microsoft's Azure Cloud platform, the data we host is available for access across multiple distinct servers. For this reason, your data is stored redundantly, which means that even in the event of a total server or system failure, your instance's data won't be lost.

For more information on how we use Azure to maintain data integrity, check out our Being Cloud Native article.

Backing up your Sonar instance

Sonar does not support recoverable backups of your instance data, however, we allow you to export a copy of all data contained in your instance. These data exports include your customer data, notes made on accounts, settings, user data, etc. While the data can be exported for use with other applications, there's no way to import prior data into Sonar.

If you are requiring a data snapshot so that you have a restore point for your Sonar instance because you are performing a mass data edit, please contact your RAM so that we can properly help you through this process.

What is a Data Export

When your data is backed up in Sonar, we use a process called Data Exports. These Data Exports are designed to save the information stored on an instance in a format that will allow you to use this data for other purposes, or with other services. Data Export configuration is managed from Settings → Data Exports.

Below we'll review the information contained on this page, and what each section allows you to do.

Data Exports dashboard overview

  1. The Create Data Exports button allows you to manually initiate a data export which will be stored on the instance, available for download on demand
  2. The Automatic Exports toggle allows you to tell your instance that you would like it to make backups of your data every night at midnight UTC
  3. The Upload Automatic Exports toggle allows you to tell the instance to send the backups to your configured storage (see step #5)
  4. The Maximum exports value allows you to set the maximum number of exports preserved on your instance. Any more than this set value will be removed to make room.
    If you're using configured storage, this maximum limit will also apply to those locations.
  5. The Backup Timeout value allows you to define the amount of time (in minutes) an export should run before it is considered to be failed.
    1. The Backup Timeout value must be set between 60 and 1440 minutes (1 to 24 hours)
    2. The Default value is set to 60 minutes
    3. If the data export is running for longer than the set value, it will be marked as failed and restarted
      If you're finding that all of your data exports are failing, it may be worth increasing the timeout before contacting support.
  6. The Configured Storage section allows you to add an off-instance location for your exports to be duplicated to. You have the following options for providers:
    When configuring your external Data Export Storage, your provider may require that Sonar's Egress IP Address be whitelisted. For the most up-to-date list of IP Addresses, you can review the Sonar IP Addressing article.

    As information can flow between IP Addresses interchangeably, ensure that all addresses are whitelisted.
    1. Amazon S3
      Amazon S3 credential requirements
      1. Your AWS S3 account key
      2. Your AWS S3 account secret
      3. Your AWS S3 region
      4. The AWS S3 API version
      5. Your AWS S3 bucket
      6. The base path for storing the data exports in your S3 instance

    2. Azure Blob Storage
      Azure Blob Storage credential requirements
      1. Your account name
      2. Your account key
      3. The container name
      4. The base path for storing the data exports in your Azure Blob Storage

    3. DigitalOcean Spaces
      DigitalOcean Spaces credential requirements
      1. Your DigitalOcean Spaces account key
      2. Your DigitalOcean Spaces account secret
      3. Your DigitalOcean Spaces region
      4. The DigitalOcean Spaces API version
      5. The DigitalOcean Spaces endpoint
      6. Your DigitalOcean Spaces bucket
      7. The base path for storing the data exports in your DigitalOcean Spaces bucket

    4. Dropbox
      Dropbox credential requirements
      1. Your Dropbox account authorization token
      2. The base path for storing the data exports in your Dropbox instance

    5. Google Cloud Storage
      Google Cloud Storage credential requirements
      1. Your Google project ID
      2. The contents of your Google Cloud Storage key file
      3. Your Google Cloud Storage bucket
      4. The base path for storing the data exports in your Google Cloud Storage instance

    6. Rackspace
      Rackspace credential requirements
      1. The Rackspace identity endpoint
      2. Your Rackspace username
      3. Your Rackspace password
      4. Your Rackspace region
      5. The base path for storing the data exports in your Rackspace instance

    7. Scaleway Object Storage
      Scaleway Object Storage credential requirements
      1. Your Scaleway Object Storage account key
      2. Your Scaleway Object Storage account secret
      3. Your Scaleway Object Storage region
      4. The Scaleway Object Storage API version
      5. The Scaleway Object Storage endpoint
      6. Your Scaleway Object Storage bucket
      7. The base path for storing the data exports in your Scaleway Object Storage instance

    8. SFTP
      Secure FTP credential requirements
      1. The host of the SFTP server
      2. The port of the SFTP server
      3. Your SFTP username
      4. Your SFTP password
      5. The base path for storing the data exports in your SFTP server

  7. The Data Export History table will display a history of all exports stored on your instance, up to the maximum selected. This table displays the data export name, when it was created, the file name, and the file password.

Using the Data Exports tool

In this section, we'll explore using the export tool in a few different scenarios, in order to make sure we have a firm grasp on how you can back up your Sonar instance data.

Running a manual data export

One of the simplest methods of using the Data Export tool is running a manual backup. This particular process requires only entering a name of the backup.

Manually creating a backup of your instance data is a quick and easy way of being able to take the information in Sonar and move it to another platform or 3rd party software.

Windows Explorer does not have the ability to password-protect .zip files. For this reason, we recommend that you use WinZip or 7-Zip.

Using Automatic Exports

Another method of using the Data Exports in Sonar is through enabling automatic exports. The Automatic Exporting is intended for use in situations where an external application may frequently need access to the customer data hosted in Sonar.

Configuring a Storage Location

The final method of using the Data Exports feature builds on the Automatic Data Export method covered in the previous segment.

Configuring a storage location allows you to add an external destination for all backups being made, as long as the Upload Automatic Exports toggle is enabled. Once enabled, exports will be stored on both the instance and on the configured storage location(s).

The maximum number of exports will apply to both the instance storage and configured storage. Any data export past that maximum number will delete the oldest data export and replace it.

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