How to Reinitialize Alation Without Re-Install

Customer Managed Applies to customer-managed instances of Alation

These steps can be used to reinitialize Alation without re-installing it.

Important

Reinitialization results in deletion of data. This procedure is for Alation system admins only.

Run all commands as “root” or SUDO.

Prerequisite

If your Alation instance is running in an HA cluster (HA configuration) and you need to reinitialize the secondary instance, make sure to first put the primary instance into standalone mode:

• Do this only on the primary node to switch it to the standalone mode

  sudo service alation shell
  alation_action cluster_enter_standalone_mode
  #Exit the shell
  exit
  

Reinitialize Alation

1. Stop Alation on the instance to be reinitialized. In case of HA pair configuration, stop Alation on the node to be reinitialized:

   #if not logged in as root use SUDO
   service alation stop
   

2. Copy a backup file to a different location in case you need to restore later:

   #optional, but skip at your own risk
   cp /opt/alation/alation/data2/backup/<backup file> /home/<directory>/<backup file>
   

3. Run the tail command for /opt/alation/alation/.disk* and save the output:

   # Save this output, you will need it later
   tail /opt/alation/alation/.disk*
   

4. Delete disk cache files:

   rm /opt/alation/alation/.disk*
   

5. Remove data:

   Warning

   There is no way to recover any data after performing this step. This step results in deleting the data existing on the instance.

   # You will not be able to recover any data after this step is run
   # Use the output you saved for paths
   rm -rf <path to data>/*
   rm -rf <path to backup>/*
   

6. Reinitialize Alation:

   service alation init <path to data> <path to backup>
   

7. If there were any custom configurations done (for example, SSL configuration), run:

   service alation shell
   alation_action deploy_conf_all
   

8. Start Alation:

   service alation start