Do you understand the backup model in the current backup system?

[cPanelKenneth]

Do you understand the backup model in the current backup system?

In this model you can:

• Select a backup interval of daily, weekly, or monthly
• Select a retention of daily, weekly, monthly. Any combination of these three is acceptable
• Pick the day(s) of the week for backup to occur

What does any combination of these options result in? If I select an interval or weekly, a retention of monthly, and have backup run every day of the week, what is the end result?

As a user if I cannot adequately predict the result of my actions in the interface then something is wrong. The backup model, and its corresponding user interface, is complicated even when reading the source of scripts/cpbackup.

To address this we decided to simplify the backup model to the following:



We don’t set an upper limit on the number of backups to retain. That is a decision best handled by the server administrator, and will be determined by factors we cannot easily answer. Thus we allow unlimited as an option.

If you do set a hard threshold, such as 5, then once the limit is reached, we will remove the oldest backup to make way for a newer backup.

What if I only want to run backup once a week, or once a month? To run backup once a week, select only the day of the week you want, such as Friday, and deselect all other days.

That still doesn’t address “backup once a month.” For this iteration we wanted to implement the simplest thing possible. “Day of the week to run” certainly fits that. This is just the beginning. In our next iteration we’ll examine and implement monthly backup, and possibly others (e.g. quarterly).

[deth4uall]

Sounds like a good plan, mate. I look forward to seeing this in a future release.

[GIANT_CRAB]

Hello,

Previous backup system was only given a daily backup.
It deletes the previous backup when the new backup is done.

This new backup system is great and the UI looks amazing!

Keep up the good work and good luck, Angry Lama team!

Yours truly,
GIANT_CRAB

[Trane Francks]

In the old system, I implemented a Ruby script that rolled over daily backups to weekly and monthly. To my thinking, it really doesn't make a whole lot of sense for the system to duplicate weekly and monthly backups when the exact same backups are being done for daily. On a simple level, you can specify daily as having 7 units, weekly as having 4 units and then a retention of monthly suitable for your own auditing (we use 1).

We wanted to have our old daily backups "fall over" to weekly status. Old weekly backups "fall over" to monthly status. And old monthly backups simply are deleted due to being stale. This system works well for us because it gives us a rotating backup system that is effective, yet at the same time it is very economical in terms of resources. Daily backups are renamed to make date math possible. After 7 dailies are in the folder, the oldest daily is moved to the weekly folder. The same formula is used for our 4 weeklies with regard to being promoted to monthly.

I do see benefits of separate daily, weekly and monthly backup jobs, but running them on the same days as each other in a simple cron setup leads to unnecessary load on the server and unwanted stress on the storage system.

[cPanelKenneth]

In the old system, I implemented a Ruby script that rolled over daily backups to weekly and monthly. To my thinking, it really doesn't make a whole lot of sense for the system to duplicate weekly and monthly backups when the exact same backups are being done for daily. On a simple level, you can specify daily as having 7 units, weekly as having 4 units and then a retention of monthly suitable for your own auditing (we use 1).

We wanted to have our old daily backups "fall over" to weekly status. Old weekly backups "fall over" to monthly status. And old monthly backups simply are deleted due to being stale. This system works well for us because it gives us a rotating backup system that is effective, yet at the same time it is very economical in terms of resources. Daily backups are renamed to make date math possible. After 7 dailies are in the folder, the oldest daily is moved to the weekly folder. The same formula is used for our 4 weeklies with regard to being promoted to monthly.

I do see benefits of separate daily, weekly and monthly backup jobs, but running them on the same days as each other in a simple cron setup leads to unnecessary load on the server and unwanted stress on the storage system.

Another way to describe your setup is "when certain events occur I want specific actions to be performed." Thus at the "week event" you want a specific action taken on a specific backup "We wanted to have our old daily backups fall over to weekly status."

In my post I think I didn't explain it in those terms, but that is the flexibility we are envisioning for backup jobs. Right now the entirety of the backup configuration is a single backup job. Within the context of the job you have the ability to dictate actions on a daily, or 7 day, interval (the event). We want to extend this to monthly, quarterly and yearly.

The idea isn't so much that a monthly or quarterly job would be regenerating a backup, but more that you could instruct the system to take specific actions when that event occurs.

Here's an example:

Each night I want to backup my system to my local backup drive. I want seven distinct backups, corresponding to the days backup occurred.
Each week I want to copy both the oldest backup to a secure remote location.

[Trane Francks]

Kenneth,

Thanks for the clarification. I look forward to exploring the new UI.

[4u123]

I'd like to comment on the basic backup schedule...

It would be very useful to specify a backup frequency in days, rather than choosing daily, weekly and monthly - and a retention period for that frequency. It would give more flexibility. For example...

1. Specify the backup to run every x days - i.e "5"
2. The day of the week to start the first backup - i.e "Monday"
3. Specify the retention schedule in days - i.e "60"
4. Specify additional restore points i.e "90, 180, 360"

This will run every 5 days and retain backups for 2 months, overwriting ones that are older. It will also keep a three month, six month and annual backup, based on the first backup taken.


So if you wanted to keep a daily, weekly and monthly backup, like with the original cpanel backup...

1. Specify the backup to run every x days - "1"
2. The day of the week to start the first backup - "Monday"
3. Specify the retention schedule of x days - "7"
4. Specify additional restore points - "30"

So this would backup every day on a 7 day schedule but also retain a monthly backup.


I think doing it this way would cover every possible combination.

[cPanelKenneth]

I'd like to comment on the basic backup schedule...

It would be very useful to specify a backup frequency in days, rather than choosing daily, weekly and monthly - and a retention period for that frequency. It would give more flexibility. For example...

1. Specify the backup to run every x days - i.e "5"
2. The day of the week to start the first backup - i.e "Monday"
3. Specify the retention schedule in days - i.e "60"
4. Specify additional restore points i.e "90, 180, 360"

This will run every 5 days and retain backups for 2 months, overwriting ones that are older. It will also keep a three month, six month and annual backup, based on the first backup taken.


So if you wanted to keep a daily, weekly and monthly backup, like with the original cpanel backup...

1. Specify the backup to run every x days - "1"
2. The day of the week to start the first backup - "Monday"
3. Specify the retention schedule of x days - "7"
4. Specify additional restore points - "30"

So this would backup every day on a 7 day schedule but also retain a monthly backup.


I think doing it this way would cover every possible combination.

That is a nice suggestion, thank you. Doing it this way would also make it simple to create "short cut" profiles that equate daily, weekly and monthly backups. That would be nice for people new to all of this.

[Gareth-AWD]

That is a nice suggestion, thank you. Doing it this way would also make it simple to create "short cut" profiles that equate daily, weekly and monthly backups. That would be nice for people new to all of this.

I'm also keen on being able to set up certain packages or users on different backup times. So some users get backed up every day while others are weekly.