Stewart Dean wrote:
Dave McGuire wrote:
On Oct 29, 2008, at 3:42 PM, Scott Silva wrote:
What is the best way to do a (server-side) backup of all mail in a user's mail?
I usually just rsync the /home directories to another server. The inital sync can take a while, but it gets faster after there is a base to work from.
...and it's much less painful if you're using maildir instead of mbox!
-DaveI have to wonder. I have a mailserver that I do a bootable complete image copy of with all files and O/S in two hours to an Ultrium-2 tape, 95 GB. When I switch to maildir, I will go from some 25,000 mbox files to 2.5 to 3 million files...I can't believe that isn't going to hurt and will force me into incrementals..... Well, I can't talk about an installation of that size - but I CAN say I've been using an rsync based backup and been thrilled with the results. I'm supporting a measly dozen users, but I'm incrementally backing up our complete server on a nightly basis. I think the script now takes less than an hour to run - for a complete backup.
Since I'm doing this via a VPN to a server at my house, it makes it rather convenient. I love having an immediately available backup I can ssh to - that now represents a daily snapshot for over a year - so when one of my users says, "Um...if I deleted a file that I've been working on for the past two weeks...can you get it back?"
-- Daniel