Email Server Backup Strategy
Hello,
Was thinking it would be wise to backup my server, in case anything "bad" ever happened, so that I could quickly get up to speed.
clone the whole drive -- which might be the best to ensure I keep the whole system working.
But, what about, if I just wanted to backup my Email server components? Postfix - which I think is just config files, and Dovecot - I think there is a doveadm backup for doing such things.
What do you guys do, recommend for backups??
Thanks
-- https://www.little-beak.com "Doing what we can."
What I do:
1 - I ran a maildirlock command to my mail folder 2 - I then rsync the folder where my maildirs are, as well as the indexes, to a remote location 3 - I tar.gz the daily backup 4 - I kill the maildirlock process
I also use replication of my server so that I keep getting mail when my main server isn't available.
As for postfix, I backup the database once a week, since it doesn't get changed that often.
Hope that helps!
Best,
Francis
On 09.02.2020 18:26, Esteban L wrote:
Hello,
Was thinking it would be wise to backup my server, in case anything "bad" ever happened, so that I could quickly get up to speed.
clone the whole drive -- which might be the best to ensure I keep the whole system working.
But, what about, if I just wanted to backup my Email server components? Postfix - which I think is just config files, and Dovecot - I think there is a doveadm backup for doing such things.
What do you guys do, recommend for backups??
Thanks
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Hi,
On 10/2/20 4:59 am, Francis Augusto Medeiros-Logeay wrote:
What I do:
1 - I ran a maildirlock command to my mail folder 2 - I then rsync the folder where my maildirs are, as well as the indexes, to a remote location
If rsync is not fast... then how about doing a snapshot and then rsync off the snapshot? (I do rsync over lvm snapshots to back up file systems cleanly) and, btw, perform file system dumps [ufsdump / ufsrestore like, but dump and restore on Linux] of *non-mounted* backup file systems fwiw.
I have other rsyncs that happen via rsnapshot during the day, I don't worry about snapshotting them though, but I probably should....
3 - I tar.gz the daily backup 4 - I kill the maildirlock process
I also use replication of my server so that I keep getting mail when my main server isn't available.
You mean backup mx?
As for postfix, I backup the database once a week, since it doesn't get changed that often.
Hope that helps!
Best,
Francis
On 09.02.2020 18:26, Esteban L wrote:
Hello,
Was thinking it would be wise to backup my server, in case anything "bad" ever happened, so that I could quickly get up to speed.
clone the whole drive -- which might be the best to ensure I keep the whole system working.
But, what about, if I just wanted to backup my Email server components? Postfix - which I think is just config files, and Dovecot - I think there is a doveadm backup for doing such things.
What do you guys do, recommend for backups??
Thanks
Cheers
Andrew McGlashan
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On Sun, Feb 9, 2020, 23:38 Andrew McGlashan < andrew.mcglashan@affinityvision.com.au> wrote:
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Hi,
On 10/2/20 4:59 am, Francis Augusto Medeiros-Logeay wrote:
What I do:
1 - I ran a maildirlock command to my mail folder 2 - I then rsync the folder where my maildirs are, as well as the indexes, to a remote location
If rsync is not fast... then how about doing a snapshot and then rsync off the snapshot? (I do rsync over lvm snapshots to back up file systems cleanly) and, btw, perform file system dumps [ufsdump / ufsrestore like, but dump and restore on Linux] of *non-mounted* backup file systems fwiw.
I have other rsyncs that happen via rsnapshot during the day, I don't worry about snapshotting them though, but I probably should....
3 - I tar.gz the daily backup 4 - I kill the maildirlock process
I also use replication of my server so that I keep getting mail when my main server isn't available.
You mean backup mx?
As for postfix, I backup the database once a week, since it doesn't get changed that often.
Hope that helps!
Best,
Francis
On 09.02.2020 18:26, Esteban L wrote:
Hello,
Was thinking it would be wise to backup my server, in case anything "bad" ever happened, so that I could quickly get up to speed.
clone the whole drive -- which might be the best to ensure I keep the whole system working.
But, what about, if I just wanted to backup my Email server components? Postfix - which I think is just config files, and Dovecot - I think there is a doveadm backup for doing such things.
What do you guys do, recommend for backups??
Thanks
Cheers
Andrew McGlashan
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What do you guys do to backup mdbox mails with SiS enabled? DP
On 09.02.2020 19:08, Andrew McGlashan wrote:
Hi,
On 10/2/20 4:59 am, Francis Augusto Medeiros-Logeay wrote:
What I do:
1 - I ran a maildirlock command to my mail folder 2 - I then rsync the folder where my maildirs are, as well as the indexes, to a remote location
If rsync is not fast... then how about doing a snapshot and then rsync off the snapshot? (I do rsync over lvm snapshots to back up file systems cleanly) and, btw, perform file system dumps [ufsdump / ufsrestore like, but dump and restore on Linux] of *non-mounted* backup file systems fwiw.
That's a good idea - In my case rsync is super fast, 1-2 min tops, so I can afford the lock for that time. But I surely should check more about snapshots.
I have other rsyncs that happen via rsnapshot during the day, I don't worry about snapshotting them though, but I probably should....
3 - I tar.gz the daily backup 4 - I kill the maildirlock process
I also use replication of my server so that I keep getting mail when my main server isn't available.
You mean backup mx?
Yes. It is a work of beauty that thing :) I remember how cool it was to see mail being replicated when both servers are up and one responding for mail when one of the servers is down.
Best,
Francis
On 09.02.2020 19:08, Andrew McGlashan wrote:
If rsync is not fast... then how about doing a snapshot and then rsync off the snapshot? (I do rsync over lvm snapshots to back up file systems cleanly) and, btw, perform file system dumps [ufsdump / ufsrestore like, but dump and restore on Linux] of *non-mounted* backup file systems fwiw.
I have other rsyncs that happen via rsnapshot during the day, I don't worry about snapshotting them though, but I probably should....
But thinking again about it, doesn't snapshotting every time leads to increased storage space?
Best,
Francis
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Hi,
On 10/2/20 8:37 pm, Francis Augusto Medeiros-Logeay wrote:
On 09.02.2020 19:08, Andrew McGlashan wrote:
If rsync is not fast... then how about doing a snapshot and then rsync off the snapshot? (I do rsync over lvm snapshots to back up file systems cleanly) and, btw, perform file system dumps [ufsdump / ufsrestore like, but dump and restore on Linux] of *non-mounted* backup file systems fwiw.
I have other rsyncs that happen via rsnapshot during the day, I don't worry about snapshotting them though, but I probably should....
But thinking again about it, doesn't snapshotting every time leads to increased storage space?
After being hammered by dmarc reports, I've switched emails for this list.
My snapshots are temporary, so the storage for the short periods of use is not a big deal.
Cheers
A.
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Esteban L wrote on Sun, 09 Feb 2020 18:26 +0100:
- But, what about, if I just wanted to backup my Email server components? Postfix - which I think is just config files, and Dovecot - I think there is a doveadm backup for doing such things.
For postfix you should also back up the mail queue (e.g., messages that
couldn't be delivered the first time and await further delivery
attempts). See postconf data_directory and/or postconf queue_directory.
What I do:
1 - I ran a maildirlock command to my mail folder 2 - I then rsync the folder where my maildirs are, as well as the indexes, to a remote location 3 - I tar.gz the daily backup 4 - I kill the maildirlock process
I also use replication of my server so that I keep getting mail when my main server isn't available.
As for postfix, I backup the database once a week, since it doesn't get changed that often.
Hope that helps!
Best,
Francis
On 09.02.2020 18:26, Esteban L wrote:
Hello,
Was thinking it would be wise to backup my server, in case anything "bad" ever happened, so that I could quickly get up to speed.
clone the whole drive -- which might be the best to ensure I keep the whole system working.
But, what about, if I just wanted to backup my Email server components? Postfix - which I think is just config files, and Dovecot - I think there is a doveadm backup for doing such things.
What do you guys do, recommend for backups??
Thanks
On Sun, 9 Feb 2020 18:26:25 +0100 Esteban L esteban@little-beak.com wrote:
Was thinking it would be wise to backup my server, in case anything "bad" ever happened, so that I could quickly get up to speed.
Thanks for asking (I could not find a lot of threads about it when I looked into it.)
I am obsessive so I have a forward-all rule in POSTFIX that pipes to a command line from which I cast to another server where I save (and replicate to another server and so on.)
This is what I do ,what I'd recommend is that'd be a feature delivered with POSTFIX (since it's the `first' program to receive the email and tell the sender that it's ok, it's been received. Perhaps that's why I did not find much: I was focusing my search around POSTFIX.)
Now I understand one is supposed to have a back up email server but that's for if the internet facing one is down/disconnected ? I think there is something in the standard to say to reasonably retry.
I'm here originially to set up my system on my iPhone with server-side rules. (Thus only realizing there seems to be a built-in backup mechanism in Dovecot?)
-- Germain Le Chapelain Software Engineer Lanvaux
participants (7)
-
3xakr5x68hyouaqafze0rj＠prvt.com.au
-
Andrew McGlashan
-
Daniel Shahaf
-
Durga Prasad Malyala
-
Esteban L
-
Francis Augusto Medeiros-Logeay
-
Germain