[Dovecot] backup mdbox best strategy

[Robert Schetterer]

Am 02.12.2013 18:47, schrieb Claus:
> Hello,
> 
> i have to backup (tape library) a mailsystem with about 300.000
> Mailboxes on 2 backends. Summary of all mailboxes are 2 TByte.
> The mailstore is mdbox.
> Is it save to do a simple filesystem backup (full and incremental) with
> backupsoftware?

hm i wouldnt do that with mdbox, cause it does strongly depends to
index, but if you use dsync you could convert to maildir at backup,
maildir should be fine to store on tape, but with 2 TB this is only good
for total desaster archive, i guess it would take long time to restore
specially single mailboxes in acceptable time, from tape
Better use cheap sata storage raids for frequent backups, and do tape
snapshots sometimes.

> What is the prefered strategy to do a backup for desaster recovery
> (mailsystem crash) and restoring single usermailboxes?

dsync should do fine

http://wiki2.dovecot.org/Tools/Dsync

but there is no universal answer to this, perhaps filesystem snapshots
strategy might better, it depened on your general setup , filesystems ,
mailstore etc.

wait for others report their solutions, and find the one fits best at
your place

> 
> 
> Regards,
> Claus



Best Regards
MfG Robert Schetterer

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