Can use the high version couchbase-cli to backup low version couchbase? - backup

Question

I tried to use cbbackup and cbtransfer cli of couchbase v4.0.0 to backup couchbase v3.0.1. Both the two commands fails. Below is the output of cbbackup command. I wonder why the high version cli can not work with low version couchbase? Are they forward-compatible?
[cb-v4.0.0]$ /opt/couchbase/bin/cbbackup http://<cb-v3.0.1>:8091 /tmp/cbbackup -u 'xxxx' -p '***' -v
2016-02-28 03:05:28,679: mt cbbackup...
2016-02-28 03:05:28,679: mt source : http://<cb-v3.0.1>:8091
2016-02-28 03:05:28,679: mt sink : /tmp/cbbackup
2016-02-28 03:05:28,679: mt opts : {'username': '<xxx>', 'verbose': 1, 'dry_run': False, 'extra': {'max_retry': 10.0, 'rehash': 0.0, 'dcp_consumer_queue_length': 1000.0, 'data_only': 0.0, 'uncompress': 0.0, 'nmv_retry': 1.0, 'cbb_max_mb': 100000.0, 'report': 5.0, 'mcd_compatible': 1.0, 'try_xwm': 1.0, 'backoff_cap': 10.0, 'batch_max_bytes': 400000.0, 'report_full': 2000.0, 'flow_control': 1.0, 'batch_max_size': 1000.0, 'seqno': 0.0, 'design_doc_only': 0.0, 'recv_min_bytes': 4096.0}, 'single_node': False, 'ssl': False, 'vbucket_list': None, 'threads': 4, 'mode': 'full', 'key': None, 'password': '<xxx>', 'id': None, 'silent': False, 'bucket_source': None}
2016-02-28 03:05:28,713: mt bucket: productbucket
2016-02-28 03:05:44,590: w0 source : http://<cb-v3.0.1>:8091(productbucket#172.31.2.154:8091)
2016-02-28 03:05:44,590: w0 sink : /tmp/cbbackup(productbucket#172.31.2.154:8091)
2016-02-28 03:05:44,590: w0 : total | last | per sec
2016-02-28 03:05:44,590: w0 batch : 171 | 171 | 10.8
2016-02-28 03:05:44,590: w0 byte : 69447174 | 69447174 | 4374738.4
2016-02-28 03:05:44,590: w0 msg : 28346 | 28346 | 1785.6
[####################] 100.0% (28346/estimated 28346 msgs)
bucket: productbucket, msgs transferred...
: total | last | per sec
batch : 171 | 171 | 10.7
byte : 69447174 | 69447174 | 4331609.4
msg : 28346 | 28346 | 1768.0
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/opt/couchbase/lib/python/cbbackup", line 12, in <module>
pump_transfer.exit_handler(pump_transfer.Backup().main(sys.argv))
File "/opt/couchbase/lib/python/pump_transfer.py", line 94, in main
rv = pumpStation.run()
File "/opt/couchbase/lib/python/pump.py", line 140, in run
self.transfer_bucket_index(source_bucket, source_map, sink_map)
File "/opt/couchbase/lib/python/pump.py", line 267, in transfer_bucket_index
source_bucket, source_map)
File "/opt/couchbase/lib/python/pump_dcp.py", line 92, in provide_index
err, index_server = pump.filter_server(opts, source_spec, 'index')
File "/opt/couchbase/lib/python/pump.py", line 1057, in filter_server
if filtor in node["services"] and node["status"] == "healthy":
KeyError: 'services'

Answer 1

It's unfortunately not supported right now. We're currently in the process of making all of the Couchbase tools supported for a target set of releases.
One workaround is to use XDCR from the 3.0.1 cluster to move your data to the 4.0 cluster.

Answer 2

Apart from the above accepted solution you can use the cbtransfer tool to backup data from 3.x server bucket and then use the backup data to populate 4.x server bucket
# ssh to 3.x server
$ cbtransfer -b <bucket> http://<3.x.server.ip>:8091 bucket-backup
# copy back-up data to 4.x server from 3.x server using scp or similar tool
# ssh 4.x server
$ cbtransfer -B <bucket> http://<4.x.server.ip>:8091 bucket-backup
The reason to switch servers is to use the correct bin executable files for cbtransfer.