Backup schemes
 

Quick question.

We have 2 servers, a live website server (A) and a hot backup (B) that has apache and mysql off for the time being.

We have a number of scenarios that we want to run:

1) Copy the start state of server A to server B.
2) Make a tape of the start position of server A.

We can easily achieve 1) + 2) using rsync. First rsync the appropriate files between the 2 servers, then rsync the files to a public directory where the tape server (C) can see the files.

3) Make sure that changes to server A are mirrored to server B on a daily basis.

Again easy with rsync - create a cron that keeps the 2 servers up-to-date overnight. Easy.

4) Create a set of changed / new files on a weekly basis ready to be archived on DVD.

This is the hard one from my pov. Is there any software that can effectivly pickup the changes made from rysnc as it goes? Or should I just have a weekly cron that copies all the files from the Server B to the public folder?

Any ideas?

If B really is a hot standby and is not actively running eg Apache, MySQL, then it's not doing much at all most of the time.
I'd schedule a full backup of B to DVD weekly (pref Daily) to DVD after the latest overnight copy from A.

The trouble is the amount of data being generated on server A.

The initial backup will be ~100GB which will just fit on our tape system. However that won't go on a tape weekly, hence wanting to record the changes, which follows current policy in house on other servers.

Server B will be running other database apps as it's main job so will be fairly busy ;-)