Hi, I have a web server on my network here, and its always on hosting a few sites, about 5, and a few user accounts for file storage etc. For backups i used to just copy the files onto my dekstop machine and make backups that way, but the more the server is growing the more of a pain its beginning to get! I just put another linux box on my network, just a clean fresh install of ubuntu server, So i was wondering is there any scripts or programs where i could backup the home directory/MySql databses/apache config/the apache www folder (any other important things im missing?) onto the new server i put in, basically make this just a backup server? Is this possible?

I found this using google any use for what im looking for?
http://linux.about.com/od/backup_rec...wtbar12t02.htm

That link looks promising enough, onlt thing is say i do a backup using this, and my server fails completely, i re-install ubuntu fresh, and do a restore, would the server be back the way it was before? or would the new install cause problems?

Cheers
-Mark

I love to read about diligent backer-uppers. Yes there are a few programs you can use to accomplish this. Depending on your level of comfort, i will outline a few options for you.


1. Rsync, Webmin, AutomysqlBackup:
II. You can use Rsync to copy files to destination automatically
III. You can use Webmin to backup all your configuration files
IV. you can use AutoMySQLBackup to automatically make daily, monthly, and weekly copies of your SQL databases, this is a very simple script, which i can provide to you.

2. Incremental Backups using a more complex Sceme:
II. Follow this great How To using Rsync:


3. Bacula:
II. Tons of information, config examples and How To's can be found here: http://wiki.bacula.org/doku.php

4. Dirvish:
II. http://wiki.dirvish.org/

5. Rsnapshot, based on rsync:
II.http://www.rsnapshot.org/howto/

6. SSH+Tar scripts:
II. In this method the contents of the backup travel (compressed) across the network, but through ssh. You can choose to backup any part (or all) of a filesystem. This is also useful if you have run out of space on a machine that needs backing up - this method doesn't require an intermediate tar file to be stored on the harddrive.
III. More complicated method, but i can provide assistance


These are just a few of your options, please let me know if you need anymore info

-weisso

If you're into scripting (or want to become so) I just found the benefits of a program called "Expect" -- It comes with Redhat/Fedora Core...not sure about ubuntu -- In an evening you can have it backing up files automatically to your backup server using FTP (or any other method you want).

Check out "#man expect" and see what you can find out. There's also "#man autoexpect" which will generate a script by 'watching' your session.

I just created a script and put it into crontab so it runs daily.

Here's a couple good sites expalining Expect with small examples too:
http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/3065
http://linux.die.net/man/1/expect (just the man page...but helpful still)

Good luck!
bigdawggi

a less "complicated" way without scripting could be bacula:
http://www.bacula.org

I really would be interested in this. I don't know too much about mysql, but my intranet runs off of it, so I know that backups are definitely needed in this case.

Sure it's a great little script, takes about 2mins to setup.

Here is a link:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/automysqlbackup/


-weisso

Cool thanks. Since it's not a very active community, me being the only poster, would weekly backups be sufficient?

That's down to you... how much of pain would it be to re-enter a week's worth of data? (assuming you can remember it all...)

i agree with chrism01, i do daily, weekly, and monthly backups. The backups are not going to be that large, mine are about 40megs, and you can never EVER have too many backups.


-weisso

Hey all,
For backups, I found this works for my purposes.
All servers are mounted via NFS to my backup server.
I wrote a script for each server (generic except for different directories listed). the script simply tar zips locally on the backup server the contents of all directories from all the networked servers I listed.
I do this every night, and keep 2 days backup / month / year. Excessive I know, but as you see, never have too many backups.

If there is a failure in the backup, check $? after running tar, I get an email that the back up failed, and I can check it quickly. But now I still have yesterdays backup.

Josh

My favorite is when people start backing up their data, after they lost it all. Smart.