Best way of backing up a webserver?
 

Hello

I would like to backup all of my webserver files at least daily, the site also uses mysql database so that also needs backups.

For Mysql I figured a script that extracts the database and ftp it to another server. Is that ok or is there a better way?

But I'm not sure what the best way would be for the files since they are 10GB and its growing at a fast rate.

can you tell me a good backup method?

Thank You

Copying the data to another server is a good start, as it will give you redundancy. But ideally you want to backup to something removable, like a tape, DVD, or Blu-Ray.

The advantage with removable media is that you can have a different media for each day (assuming you are using something that can be rewritten to multiple times, like tape) and can store them off-site. Off-site storage is especially important in the event of a disaster like a fire or flood.

Look into something like rsync that will copy changes rather than the whole file.

10GB or more, you may want to consider something like Bacula or Amanda to automate the backup process instead of relying on rsync and home brewed scripts.

I use bacula myself and I make daily dumps of my mysql databases that I drop into a directory that bacula picks up when it runs.

There are many different approaches you can take, the best would be the approach that does a full backup, incrementals inbetween and possibly diff's, keeping a month retention at minimum, etc.

Tell us your requirements and it might help us better understand how to approach or give advice.

If you are doing dynamic web sites with mysql, then having a good mechanism for backing up mysql will be important. Check out Zmanda Recovery Manager for MySQL. There was a detailed review in the latest Linux Journal (September 2008 issue). You can find links here: http://www.linuxquestions.org/bookmarks/tags/backup -- the ZRM link is about 2/3 of the way down the first page of links on that. It will do fulls and incrementals, and you can integrate it with whatever general backup tool you want to put the backups on tape or other media.

You will also find plenty of links there for Amanda. Lots of options in how you configure. One interesting option for off site now is that Amanda has a backend for Amazon S3.