I wanted to set up a backup over rsync and I found the followng script on the wiki :

Code:
#!/bin/bash

# Zimbra Backup Script
# Requires that you have ssh-keys: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SSHHowto#Public%20key%20authentication
# This script is intended to run from the crontab as root
# Date outputs and su vs sudo corrections by other contributors, thanks, sorry I don't have names to attribute!
# Free to use and free of any warranty!  Daniel W. Martin, 5 Dec 2008
## Adapted for rsync over ssh instead of ncftp by Ace Suares, 24 April 2009 (Ubuntu 6.06 LTS)

# the destination directory for local backups
DESTLOCAL=/backup/backup-zimbra
# the destination for remote backups
DESTREMOTE="yourserver:/backup/backup-zimbra"

# Outputs the time the backup started, for log/tracking purposes
echo Time backup started = $(date +%T)
before="$(date +%s)"
# a backup dir on the local machine. This will fill up over time!
BACKUPDIR=$DESTLOCAL/$(date +%F-%H-%M-%S)

# Live sync before stopping Zimbra to minimize sync time with the services down
# Comment out the following line if you want to try single cold-sync only
rsync -avHK --delete --backup --backup-dir=$BACKUPDIR /opt/zimbra/ $DESTLOCAL/zimbra

# which is the same as: /opt/zimbra /backup 
# Including --delete option gets rid of files in the dest folder that don't exist at the src 
# this prevents logfile/extraneous bloat from building up overtime.
# the backupdir will hold all files that changed or where deleted during the previous backup

# Now we need to shut down Zimbra to rsync any files that were/are locked
# whilst backing up when the server was up and running.
before2="$(date +%s)"

# Stop Zimbra Services
/etc/init.d/zimbra stop
#su - zimbra -c"/opt/zimbra/bin/zmcontrol stop"
#sleep 15
# Kill any orphaned Zimbra processes
#kill -9 `ps -u zimbra -o "pid="`
pkill -9 -u zimbra

# Only enable the following command if you need all Zimbra user owned
# processes to be killed before syncing
# ps auxww | awk '{print $1" "$2}' | grep zimbra | kill -9 `awk '{print $2}'`

# Sync to backup directory
rsync -avHK --delete --backup --backup-dir=$BACKUPDIR /opt/zimbra/ $DESTLOCAL/zimbra

# Restart Zimbra Services
#su - zimbra -c "/opt/zimbra/bin/zmcontrol start"
/etc/init.d/zimbra start

# Calculates and outputs amount of time the server was down for
after="$(date +%s)"
elapsed="$(expr $after - $before2)"
hours=$(($elapsed / 3600))
elapsed=$(($elapsed - $hours * 3600))
minutes=$(($elapsed / 60))
seconds=$(($elapsed - $minutes * 60))
echo SERVER WAS DOWN FOR: "$hours hours $minutes minutes $seconds seconds"

# Create a txt file in the backup directory that'll contains the current Zimbra
# server version. Handy for knowing what version of Zimbra a backup can be restored to.
# su - zimbra -c "zmcontrol -v > $DESTLOCAL/zimbra/conf/zimbra_version.txt"
# or examine your /opt/zimbra/.install_history

# Display Zimbra services status
echo Displaying Zimbra services status...
su - zimbra -c "/opt/zimbra/bin/zmcontrol status"
# /etc/init.d/zimbra status # seems not to work
# backup the backup dir (but not the backups of the backups) to remote
rsync -essh -avHK --delete-during $DESTLOCAL/zimbra $DESTREMOTE

# Outputs the time the backup finished
echo Time backup finished = $(date +%T)

# Calculates and outputs total time taken
after="$(date +%s)"
elapsed="$(expr $after - $before)"
hours=$(($elapsed / 3600))
elapsed=$(($elapsed - $hours * 3600))
minutes=$(($elapsed / 60))
seconds=$(($elapsed - $minutes * 60))
echo Time taken: "$hours hours $minutes minutes $seconds seconds"

# end
However, I can't copy the mailstore twice beause of space issues so I'd lke to skip the local backup part until I can upgrade the HDD's.

We're using a backup mx relay so downtime is not an issue to me since the backup happens on sunday morning at 3AM.

As such I've modified the script to skip the local copying and be solely a cold backup :

Code:
#!/bin/bash

# Zimbra Backup Script
# Requires that you have ssh-keys: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SSHHowto#Public%20key%20authentication
# This script is intended to run from the crontab as root
# Date outputs and su vs sudo corrections by other contributors, thanks, sorry I don't have names to attribute!
# Free to use and free of any warranty!  Daniel W. Martin, 5 Dec 2008
## Adapted for rsync over ssh instead of ncftp by Ace Suares, 24 April 2009 (Ubuntu 6.06 LTS)

# the destination for remote backups
DESTREMOTE="yourserver:/backup/backup-zimbra"

# Stop Zimbra Services
/etc/init.d/zimbra stop
#su - zimbra -c"/opt/zimbra/bin/zmcontrol stop"
#sleep 15
# Kill any orphaned Zimbra processes
#kill -9 `ps -u zimbra -o "pid="`
pkill -9 -u zimbra

# Only enable the following command if you need all Zimbra user owned
# processes to be killed before syncing
# ps auxww | awk '{print $1" "$2}' | grep zimbra | kill -9 `awk '{print $2}'`

# Sync to backup directory
rsync -essh -avHK --delete /opt/zimbra/ $DESTREMOTE

# Restart Zimbra Services
#su - zimbra -c "/opt/zimbra/bin/zmcontrol start"
/etc/init.d/zimbra start

# Display Zimbra services status
echo Displaying Zimbra services status...
su - zimbra -c "/opt/zimbra/bin/zmcontrol status"

# Outputs the time the backup finished
echo Time backup finished = $(date +%T)

# end
I don't usually do code so I'd like to make sure I don't do anything stupid on my message store before running this script and a second opinion would go a long way to ensure that!