Rsync to backup dbox with SIS

[Daniel Miller]

On 1/25/2019 1:33 PM, ash-dovecot at comtek.co.uk wrote:
>
> We will be deploying a replacement Dovecot server soon, and we are 
> planning to use maildir for the primary storage, but with an archive 
> namespace using mdbox (or perhaps sdbox), and SIS.
>
> Our backup servers and (luke)warm spare server need to obtain full 
> copies of the mail store. For the maildirs I know I can simply use 
> rsync (we already use it here).
>
> I'm a little wary of using rsync with mdbox and SIS though.
>
Significantly limited knowledge opinions below:

Probably not the answer you want - but I would strongly suggest using 
Dovecot replication.  Dovecot replication Just Works - so don't reinvent 
the wheel when Timo provided such a polished tool already.  And based on 
my previous SIS experience - while dbox is nice I would suggest avoiding 
SIS until there are reports of more development.  Sdbox will be solid - 
which is what you want for an archive - though maildir would be the 
safest.  Archives don't need to be rapid-access - they need to be 
dependable.  SIS is wonderful for space saving - but until there's more 
safety checks built-in I'd suggest avoiding it for production backups.  
Drives are cheap - lost data, lost time, lost hair, lost sanity...is not.

> I'm aware of "doveadm backup", and (although it currently throws up a 
> few errors) it seems like it might be a valid solution for our warm 
> spare server. Our backup servers, on the other hand, aren't supposed 
> to be visible to the production machines, with the exception of the 
> backup machine sshing in to do an rsync each night. We can't install 
> dovecot on them.
>
The backups don't have to be "visible" to other machines - don't even 
have to be running IMAP/POP services (I think).  And the replication 
command is run - via ssh (see https://wiki.dovecot.org/Replication) - so 
what's the problem?

--

Daniel

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