How Do I Backup my Entire File Server

[dvdprovideo]

Hello All,

I am fairly new to the Linux world but I am getting around slowly. I have been in the Windows server world for years and know the importance of a good backup. I have configured cPanel backups to backup my websites to a 2nd drive on my server bu this is not enough. I have added some addons uch as mailscanner, csf firewall, a few other products from http://www.configserver.com/. I know this is not being backed up.
(Side Note: If you run a cPanel server stop by and see these guys. They have an awesome product set tohelp manage email and spam.)

What I would really prefer to be doing is a FULL nightly backup of my entire server to my 2nd drive. I would like to see my root, home, sys, usr, var and the rest of the directorys backed up. Does anyone know of a WHM/cPanel backup software that does this? If not can someone help me with the Linux Fedora command line for a backup. May have to use tar?

Thanks In Advance For Your Help.

 

[ramprage]

There is no WHM software that will do this. I don't see a point in backing up all your binaries and other things to a secondary drive. In the event you are rooted you will still need to format the first drive. The second drive is still useless since you cannot boot from it.

You're better off backing up select system files than backing up the entire drive. If you want exact duplicates you should just get a RAID setup.

 

[dvdprovideo]

Thank you for the update and opinion. I'm still a little old school in my backup philosiphy.

Is there a SOFTWARE utility to clone my primary drive to second drive without installing a hardware mirror? Is there a utility that will allow me to do a backup certain restorable directories? Is there a tar command line that works well?

Since there is no WHM software available is there a software similar to an Acronis disk imaging software or Symantec Ghost that I can take a full server backup of and place it into an image file.

Thanks in advance.

 

[ramprage]

Yes if you still want to backup select directories you can use a tool called rsync. This can mirror over changes to the secondary drive for you and also only transfer data upon file changes so its not constantly swapping your drives copying over data it already has.

 

[dvdprovideo]

Hi Rampage, thank you for the info. I'll check it out. It looks pretty good.

In regards to cPanel backup software do you have an opinion one way or another about CP Site Saver (http://www.cpsitesaver.com/) or Site Backup CP 1.0 (http://www.newfreedownloads.com/Web-Authoring/Site-Management/Site-Backup-CP.html).

I know these are alternatives to what is currently in cPanel. Is cPanel good enough for the restore of the websites and SQL databases.

Thanks.

 

[freedog96150]

Hi Rampage, thank you for the info. I'll check it out. It looks pretty good.

In regards to cPanel backup software do you have an opinion one way or another about CP Site Saver (http://www.cpsitesaver.com/) or Site Backup CP 1.0 (http://www.newfreedownloads.com/Web-Authoring/Site-Management/Site-Backup-CP.html).

I know these are alternatives to what is currently in cPanel. Is cPanel good enough for the restore of the websites and SQL databases.

Thanks.

Hehehe...CPsitesaver's web page reminds me of the RonCO TV ads. But wait...it gets even better...I will give you ALL THIS and MORE..if you order NOW...hehehe

Really, the $29 bucks is not a bad price, especially with no yearly maintenance fees. I assume that it has a nice GUI front-end as well. I am old school. My vote still goes to rsync to backup to remote sites, and Imaging software (like Norton Ghost) to make a "mirror" image of a drive.

Add in some bash scripting and some cron entries, and you have created an automated backup solution, requiring no fancy front-end and very little maintenance.

 

[Azmeen]

Why Not Script It?

Hi,

Assuming you're hosting on a Linux server, this shell script might be able to do the job just fine:

#!/bin/sh
backupfile=/path/to/backupdir/backups-$(date +%F).tar.gz
tar cpzf $backupfile /home /root /usr /var # Simply append any other dirs you like

You could then set up a cronjob to execute the script at regular intervals (daily, weekly, etc).

Quick, simple, effective and free

 

[ujr]

>> Hi,
>>
>> Assuming you're hosting on a Linux server, this shell script might be able to do the job just fine:

Sure that'll work, but watch the load on a server with a decently busy and large sites and... yikes.
Rampage's suggestion of using rsync is probably best for dvdprovideo's needs