Installing, Upgrading, and Uninstalling VMware Greenplum Disaster Recovery

Last Updated February 14, 2025

Greenplum Disaster Recovery is available as a package of the following VMware Tanzu Greenplum releases at Broadcom Support Portal:

VMware Greenplum 6.27.1 and higher for RHEL 7.x, 8.x, and 9.x platforms
VMware Greenplum 7.3.0 and later for RHEL 8.x and 9.x platforms

For more information about download prerequisites, troubleshooting, and instructions, see Download Broadcom products and software.

The Greenplum Disaster Recovery download package is an .rpm file that installs libraries, executables, and script files on a Greenplum Database host.

When you install the framework, you will:

Satisfy the prerequisites.
Download the package.
Install the package on every host in your Greenplum Database cluster.

Prerequisites

The recommended deployment model is to install Greenplum Disaster Recovery on all Greenplum Database hosts. Before you install, ensure that you meet the following prerequisites:

The version of Greenplum Disaster Recovery used should be compatible with the version of Greenplum Database. Reference the Release Notes for version requirements and compatibility.
You have access to all hosts (coordinator, standby coordinator, and segment hosts) in your Greenplum Database cluster.
You must be an operating system superuser, or have sudo privileges, to install the package. If you are installing on CentOS/Red Hat Enterprise Linux, you can choose to install the package into a custom file system location.
You can identify the operating system user that will own the installation. This user must be the same user that owns the Greenplum Database installation, or a user that has write privileges to the Greenplum Database installation directory.
The repository should be accessible from all the primary and mirror hosts.
Primary and recovery Greenplum clusters must be running the same VMware Greenplum major version. Thus, for example, GPDR does not support a VMware Greenplum 6X primary cluster paired with a VMware Greenplum 7X recovery cluster.
Primary and recovery Greenplum clusters must be running on the same operating system major version. Thus, for example, GPDR does not support a primary cluster running on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 paired with a recovery cluster running on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.

If you are using a mirrorless VMware Greenplum on vSphere cluster, you may need to update the wal_level GUC if it is set to minimal and restart the cluster.

For a VMware Greenplum 6X cluster, run the following command:

gphost$ gpconfig -c wal_level -v archive --skipvalidation
gphost$ gpstop -ar

For a VMware Greenplum 7X cluster, run the following command:

gphost$ gpconfig -c wal_level -v replica --skipvalidation
gphost$ gpstop -ar

Downloading the Package

Follow this procedure to download the Disaster Recovery package:

Navigate to Broadcom Support Portal.

For more information about download prerequisites, troubleshooting, and instructions, see Download Broadcom products and software.
Click the desired VMware Tanzu Greenplum release, for example, 7.3.0.
Select the desired Greenplum Disaster Recovery package to download the file. The format of the download file name is greenplum-disaster-recovery-<disaster-recovery-version>-<pkg-version>.<platform>.<arch>.rpm. For example:
```
greenplum-disaster-recovery-1.2.0-1.el7.x86_64.rpm
```
Make note of the directory to which the file was downloaded.
Follow the instructions in Verifying the VMware Greenplum Software Download in the Greenplum Database documentation to verify the integrity of the Greenplum Disaster Recovery software.

Installing the Package

You must install the package on the Greenplum Database coordinator and standby coordinator hosts, and on each segment host.

If you installed an older version of the package on your hosts, installing a newer package removes the existing Disaster Recovery installation, and installs the new version.

The install procedure follows:

Locate the installer file that you downloaded from Broadcom Support Portal.
Create a text file that lists your Greenplum Database standby coordinator host and segment hosts, one host name per line. For example, a file named gphostfile may include:
```
gpcoordinator
mstandby
seghost1
seghost2
seghost3
```
Copy the downloaded package file to all hosts in your Greenplum cluster. For example, to copy the rpm to the /tmp directory on each host:
```
gphost$ gpscp -f gphostfile greenplum-disaster-recovery-1.2.0-1.el7.x86_64.rpm =:/tmp/
```
Install the package on each Greenplum Database host using your package management utility. If a previous installation of Greenplum Disaster Recovery exists for the same Greenplum version, the files and runtime directories from the older version are removed before the current package is installed.
1. To install Greenplum Disaster Recovery into the default location on all Greenplum hosts:
  
  On a CentOS/RHEL version 7.x system:
```
gphost$ gpssh -e -v -f gphostfile "sudo yum install /tmp/greenplum-disaster-recovery-1.2.0-1.el7.x86_64.rpm"
```
  The default package installation directory is /usr/local/gpdr.
2. On all Greenplum hosts, set the ownership and permissions of the Greenplum Disaster Recovery installation files to enable access by the gpadmin user. For example, if you installed to the default location:
```
gphost$ gpssh -e -v -f gphostfile "sudo chown -R gpadmin:gpadmin /usr/local/gpdr"
```
On all Greenplum hosts, make sure Greenplum Disaster Recovery binaries are accessible. For example, if you installed to the default location, update the .bashrc shell initialization script for the gpadmin user:
```
gpssh -e -v -f gphostfile "echo 'source /usr/local/gpdr/gpdr_path.sh' >> ~/.bashrc"
```
If you are using the Greenplum high availability service for mirrorless VMware Greenplum on vSphere, you must restart the greenplum-postmaster service to refresh its environment:
```
gpssh -e -v -f gphostfile "systemctl --user restart greenplum-postmaster.service"
```

Remove the package download file that you copied to each system. For example, to remove the rpm from /tmp:

gpadmin@gphost$ gpssh -e -v -f gphostfile "rm -f /tmp/greenplum-disaster-recovery-1.2.0-1.el7.x86_64.rpm"

Upgrading Greenplum Disaster Recovery

Unless specified in the Release Notes, doing an upgrade should not affect the configurations, connectivity, or integrity of your existing repositories. Backups and restore points created before the upgrade will still function properly.

Before upgrading Greenplum Disaster Recovery, ensure that the Greenplum Database installation on the primary and recovery cluster meet the version requirement for the newer Greenplum Disaster Recovery. Refer to the Release Notes for the Greenplum Database installation version requirements. For reference, the Greenplum Database installation guide can be followed for upgrading Greenplum Database.

It is not required for the Greenplum Database cluster to be stopped during an upgrade of Greenplum Disaster Recovery.

When a Greenplum Database cluster is used as the recovery cluster, it may be in a started or stopped state depending on whether or not Read Replica mode is enabled.

Follow this procedure to upgrade Greenplum Disaster Recovery:

Stop and disable any scheduled Greenplum Disaster Recovery workloads (e.g. backup, create-restore-point, and restore) on both the primary and recovery cluster.
Upgrade the Greenplum Disaster Recovery installation on both the primary and recovery cluster by following the Installing the Package section.
Validate that the Greenplum Disaster Recovery installation has been upgraded by confirming the results of gpdr --version on every Greenplum Database segment host of both the primary and recovery cluster.
Restart and enable any scheduled Greenplum Disaster Recovery workloads (e.g. backup, create-restore-point, and restore) on both the primary and recovery cluster.

Uninstalling Greenplum Disaster Recovery

Follow these steps to uninstall Greenplum Disaster Recovery

Run the following commands on the primary cluster:
1. gpconfig -r archive_mode
2. gpconfig -r archive_command
3. gpstop -ar
Uninstall the package from all hosts using the rpm -e command.
Delete the stanzas manually:
- If you are using an NFS mount specified in the POSIX configuration file, run rm -rf <mount_path>.
- If you are using a GCS or S3 bucket, delete the bucket (defined in the GCS/S3 configuration file as gcs_bucket and s3_bucket, respectively) using the cloud method you prefer.
- If you are using an Azure Storage Container, delete the container (defined in the Azure configuration file as azure_container) using the Azure method you prefer.
- If you are using a Dell Data Domain instance, delete the repository in the storage unit using the method you prefer.

Uninstalling GPDR does not clear out the repository.

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Tanzu Greenplum Disaster Recovery 1.2