[Dovecot] Backing Up

[Calvin Gordon]

I use the tar/bzip method, and have been wondering about the rsync.  All 
my users have system accounts on the dovecot server, and use Maildir 
format.  If i rsync the mail to another box where the users do not have 
system accounts, will the ownerships/ permissions etc. be goofed up ?

Correctly, or incorrectly, I've been using tar to preserve all that 
information.

Cal Gordon

Sotiris Tsimbonis wrote:
> Scott Silva wrote, On 10/30/2008 12:34 AM:
>> on 10-29-2008 3:18 PM Dave McGuire spake the following:
>>> On Oct 29, 2008, at 5:32 PM, Arkadiusz Miskiewicz 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!
>>>> Not for rsyncing. Tons of small files means much slower rsync.
>>>   Due to connection turnaround latency, I assume?  (I've never 
>>> looked at
>>> the rsync protocol)  If that's the case, then I stand very much
>>> corrected, thank you.  I was going from the same logic regarding mbox
>>> vs. maildir in the context of backups.  One new message delivered and a
>>> 400MB mail spool gets backed up again..
>>>
>>>           -Dave
>>>
>> Rsync adds some latency as it indexes and compares files on both ends.
>> Obviously it would take more time to compare 40,000 1K files then 
>> 1000 40K
>> files even though the data size is similar. It would still be better 
>> than
>> tar/bzip/scp which has to compress everything and transfer the lot 
>> every time.
>>
>
> Maildirsync it an "Online synchronizer for Maildir-format mailboxes"
> See http://hacks.dlux.hu/maildirsync/
>
> Sot.
>