DSpace
Import, Export & Backup
Mukesh A Pund
Scientist
NISCAIR
Backup Vs. Export/Import


Backup is meant for guarding the data from disk
crash, virus attack, hacking or any calamity
Export/Import is meant for exchange of digital
objects across repositories
Hardware Required for Backup

Any one of the following

CD-ROM/DVD-ROM

DAT Drive

External Hard disk

Another system on the LAN
DSpace Directory Structure

/dspace/assetstore

/dspace/assetstore (bitstreams – most important)



/dspace/bin (commands to be used at command
line, can always be generated from dspace-source
files
/dspace/config (you might have customized it,
one time backup is good enough)
/dspace/handle-server
DSpace Directory Structure




/dspace/lib (can always be generated from dspacesource)
/dspace/logs (essential to generate statistical reports
and bug tracing)
/dspace/reports (can be generated from Log files)
/dspace/search (can be regenerated using index-all
command)
Where DSpace stores data

/dspace/assetstore directory will have all the


Bitstreams and licenses
PostgreSQL databases contains information on

Communities

Collections

e-groups

E-persons, thier passwords

Host of other information
What should be Backedup

Your DSpace postgreSQL database

/dspace/assetstore (minimum backup)

/dspace (entire directory)
Creating Backup Directory


Create one directory where backup files will be
stored
Eg

#mkdir /dspacebkp

#chmod 777 /dspacebkp
tar Command (compress)

To back up /dspace directory


$tar zcvf /dspacebkp/dspace150508.tar.gz /dspace
To back up only /dspace/assetstore

$tar zcvf /dspace/asset150508.tar.gz /dspace/assetstore
Untar (uncompress)



To untar and unzip the tar.gz file, you may use the
following command
$tar zxvf /dspacebkp/dspace150508.tar.gz
WARNING:The safer approach is to use the
above command in temp directory and copy it to
dspace directory only after successfully untaring
the file
Backup of database
The following commands are for Postgresql
database backup

Run pg_dump as dspace user
 Ex:
$ su - /dspace
 /usr/local/pgsql/bin/pg_dump
dspace >
/dspacebkp/dspace_db_150508
Backup of database
Where
 dspace
is name of the database
 /dspacebkp/dspace_db_150508
file is
backup file in which all the table
definitions and contents will be stored
Restoring the backup data
One can use any of the following commands:

psql command OR

pg_restore
Restoring the Database

WARNING: You do not need to restore, unless
your data got corrupted.

Not to be used as a routine

Of course backup should be done periodically
Using psql to Restore

$ psql -d dspace -f
/dspacebkp/dspace_db_150508
 Where
dspace is the name of database
 dspace_db_150508 is the backup file
taken on 15th May 2008.
Using pg_restore to Restore

pg_restore -d dspace
/dspacebkp/dspace_db_150508
More options of pg_restore can be explored
by
$
man pg_restore
Export/Import in Dspace



Not to be used as a backup mechanism
Export and import deal only with bitstreams,
metadata, license and handles
You can export or Import

An item

A collection
or
Export
dsrun org.dspace.app.itemexport.ItemExport \
--type=COLLECTION
\
--id=collID
\
--dest=dest_dir
\
--number=seq_num
\
Where
--type can have either the value COLLECTION or ITEM
--id is the handle/collection_or_Item_Id ex: 1849/2
(or 123456789/2 in case you do not have handle)
--dest is destination directory, if does note exist create
--number is sequence number it can be just 1
Importing
dsrun org.dspace.app.itemimport.ItemImport \
--add \
--eperson=dspace@localhost.localdomain \
--collection=collectionID \
--source=items_dir
--mapfile=mapfile
Where
--add or --replace or --remove
--mapfile can be used later to remove uploaded items
What is exported

The following files will be created for every item

dublin_core.xml ( metadata)

Handle ( one line having the handle number)

license.txt

Actual file ( bitstream: could be pdf or doc or an
image file)

Contents (with two lines – license file name, and
actual bitstream name)