You can use the replication handler to fetch a complete snapshot of the index
over HTTP.
http://wiki.apache.org/solr/SolrReplication#HTTP_API
-----Original message-----
> From:Andy D'Arcy Jewell <andy.jew...@sysmicro.co.uk>
> Sent: Thu 20-Dec-2012 11:23
> To: solr-user@lucene.apache.org
> Subject: Pause and resume indexing on SolR 4 for backups
>
> Hi all.
>
> Can anyone advise me of a way to pause and resume SolR 4 so I can
> perform a backup? I need to be able to revert to a usable (though not
> necessarily complete) index after a crash or other "disaster" more
> quickly than a re-index operation would yield.
>
> I can't yet afford the "extravagance" of a separate SolR replica just
> for backups, and I'm not sure if I'll ever have the luxury. I'm
> currently running with just one node, be we are not yet live.
>
> I can think of the following ways to do this, each with various downsides:
>
> 1) Just backup the existing index files whilst indexing continues
> + Easy
> + Fast
> - Incomplete
> - Potential for corruption? (e.g. partial files)
>
> 2) Stop/Start Tomcat
> + Easy
> - Very slow and I/O, CPU intensive
> - Client gets errors when trying to connect
>
> 3) Block/unblock SolR port with IpTables
> + Fast
> - Client gets errors when trying to connect
> - Have to wait for existing transactions to complete (not sure how,
> maybe watch socket FD's in /proc)
>
> 4) Pause/Restart SolR service
> + Fast ? (hopefully)
> - Client gets errors when trying to connect
>
> In any event, the web app will have to gracefully handle unavailability
> of SolR, probably by displaying a "down for maintenance" message, but
> this should preferably be only a very short amount of time.
>
> Can anyone comment on my proposed solutions above, or provide any
> additional ones?
>
> Thanks for any input you can provide!
>
> -Andy
>
> --
> Andy D'Arcy Jewell
>
> SysMicro Limited
> Linux Support
> E: andy.jew...@sysmicro.co.uk
> W: www.sysmicro.co.uk
>
>