Topic: Best Practices for Backup

[davidpfox]

Hi All!

I have been searching the current forums to find a dominant answer as far as backing up SME Server including MySQL, i-bays, email and server restore, but also be able to restore individual files to a windows workstation.

A lot of people are recommending Affa or r-diff or the backup included with default install, but I do not see a definitive answer ..... can anyone help?

Thanks

[janet]

davidpfox

They are all good & will all do what you ask with varying degrees of "ease of use".
It really depends what you want/prefer.
There is no dominant or perfect answer, people are people and they choose what they see as most appropriate for their situation.
I suggest you try them all if unsure.

Restore to a workstation is not a common function. You can do selective restores of individual files to the server.

Here is some background info.
http://wiki.contribs.org/Backup_server_config
See the sections about what's included in a full backup and the general concepts of sme server backup.

[Stefano]

I will also add that restoring files from windows could break your server (due to loss of owner/permissions info)

generally speaking, backup procedures on SME are intended to create a "disaster recovery" backup..

if you wish to restore  even a single file FROM a windows pc, I suggest you to try backuppc..

HTH
ciao
Stefano

[chriscosta]

Also interesting to mention that you are probably want to keep your DB settings. Don't forget to backup /home/e-smith/db
You might also want to keep a list of packages that are currently installed. You can generate a list of all installed packages by running something like this.

   rpm -qa --qf "%{NAME}\n" | xargs > package.list

Then, on the new system run:
 
  yum install `cat package.list`

That will save you from the manual work of checking what needs to be installed.

davidpfox

They are all good & will all do what you ask with varying degrees of "ease of use".
It really depends what you want/prefer.
There is no dominant or perfect answer, people are people and they choose what they see as most appropriate for their situation.

Restore to a workstation is not a common function. You can do selective restores of individual files to the server.

Here is some background info.
http://wiki.contribs.org/Backup_server_config

I suggest you try them all if unsure.

[Stefano]

Also interesting to mention that you are probably want to keep your DB settings. Don't forget to backup /home/e-smith/db

any backup solution created for SME does it; anyway, you should backup all /home/e-smith dir, not only /home/e-smith/db

Stefano

[janet]

davidpfox

...Affa or r-diff or the backup included with default install.....what is the definitive answer.....

The "definitive" answer you are looking for is to use the built in backup tools that come with the default sme install. If they do not do everything you want, then look at other options.

My pointer to the Backup server config article, was not a suggestion to do modified backups, but to read the section on what's included with a standard sme backup, and the section on general backup concepts. The other sections of that article are really for one off special backups/restores where there is a specific reason for doing so eg cloning servers with no or partial data etc.

[elmarconi]

I've had the unwanted experience to have to perform a full restore recently, as both my RAID-ed Samsungs gave read-errors...

I used Affa, and backupped all 120Gb's to USB disk daily.
Restore was easy. I installed a server, added affa en restored the latest backup from USB. One reboot later 95% of the installed functionality was up and running.
Ofcourse the last 5% took over a days work, but that is to blame on myself for not installing and/or documenting things properly...