efa-project.org

I would like option to upgrade without the automatic backup during the upgrade process.

Somethink like "EFA-Update -skipbackup"

Interesting...what is the reason?

Sounds risky.

My SQL database is very large and takes a long time to finish the backup.
Can be something like "--without-sql-backup" and have no risk if EFA is running on virtual machine. There is a snapshot for recovery, if something fails.

How large is large?

You can run this command from the efa shell to get the information and paste the results here:

I have 3 relays with approximately 80GB mysql database each.

Do you have a tool for running online backups? Percona has (xtrabackup), but I am not sure about MariaDB.

As to whether to do a backup or not before an upgrade, just think of the worst case scenario - what will it cost you in terms of time if your whole database is trashed and you have to start again from scratch? Now compare that with the time it would take to do a backup.

Another "solution" is to create a mirror of your db using the mysql replication feature. Establish a mirror of your efa DB on a second machine. Stop the replication during the db update/upgrade process, verify the upgrade, and then re-enable the mirroring when you are done (or throw it away if you don't actually need the mirror).

I've done this with Percona/xtrabackup on TB sized mysql databases.

I asked for option to upgrade withouth have to wait for backup. Not backup/replication suggestion.

The problem here is to wait script to execute the backup 2-3 times to get to the latest version.

Thanks.

And my reply was to remind you that running upgrades without backups is a potentially risky proposition and to suggest alternatives in case you do choose to proceed.

Should you choose to do so, and it's not provided as a feature in the upgrade process, you could download the upgrade script yourself directly and comment out the backup command yourself and run it manually. If you're sophisticated enough to understand the risks, you're sophisticated enough to make the changes you need yourself.

For example, the last upgrade script is located at http://dl.efa-project.org/update/EFA-Up ... 2.3.tar.gz. In that archive is a file called EFA-Version-Upgrade. Near the beginning is a comment "Backup Phase". Comment out the line after that, and you're good to go.

And my reply was to remind you that running upgrades without backups is a potentially risky proposition and to suggest alternatives in case you do choose to proceed.

Yes. Doing this is my decision.

Should you choose to do so, and it's not provided as a feature in the upgrade process, you could download the upgrade script yourself directly and comment out the backup command yourself and run it manually. If you're sophisticated enough to understand the risks, you're sophisticated enough to make the changes you need yourself.

You're sophisticated enough to understand the vmware's snapshot/restore/consolidate process? Especially when the upgrade procedure specifies to stop the mail flow - item 1 on "how to upgrade" - "...Stop mail flow temporarily (at firewalls/mailservers)...". During the process there will be no email flow, so I do not see why not return the snapshot if something goes wrong. It will be much faster than doing the restore process

For example, the last upgrade script is located at http://dl.efa-project.org/update/EFA-Up ... 2.3.tar.gz. In that archive is a file called EFA-Version-Upgrade. Near the beginning is a comment "Backup Phase". Comment out the line after that, and you're good to go.

Thanks for the tip. After 20 years using Linux I did not imagine that I could edit a script ... But there may be people who would also like this option. I just want to make my life easier.

Having this option does not mean that you are forced to use it.