[SOLVED] archiving Zimbra backups

[admin1]

What is the best way to safely archive Zimbra backups? We have both Full and Incremental Backups but we only want to save the Full Backups.
We are hoping to store the backups on a removable Windows server's hard disk if possible.
(Our Zimbra installation is on a Linux server)

What are our options? If we can't store them on an NTFS or FAT formatted drive, we"ll find another location.

Thank you in advance!

admin1

[Krishopper]

You should be able to save them to an NFS volume without an issue.

[admin1]

Originally Posted by Krishopper

You should be able to save them to an NFS volume without an issue.

So, I can run "cp -R <folder with the full backups> " to a mounted NFS volume? and then, if necessary, restore them without any issues like permissions, etc?

Thanks

admin1

[Krishopper]

Yes. You may want to do cp -Rp to preserve mode, ownership, and timestamps as well.

[xeon]

You can also send the backups to a CIFS share using Samba. This is how mine is setup. I created a Samba mount to my Windows File Server that has my backup hardware attached and configured Zimbra to dump the backups on the Samba mount.

[admin1]

Thank you Krishopper and xeon.

To Krishopper:
The space that the backups occupy in the source location seem much smaller than in the target (copied-to) location. Am I missing something?

To xeon:
Have you successfully restored from the backups that have been placed on a cifs share?
Since you backup directly to that share, I assume the time stamps are OK, but how do you manage the permissions and anything else that your Linux Zimbra host might require?

[xeon]

Originally Posted by admin1

To xeon:
Have you successfully restored from the backups that have been placed on a cifs share?
Since you backup directly to that share, I assume the time stamps are OK, but how do you manage the permissions and anything else that your Linux Zimbra host might require?

Yes I have successfully restored a backup via the share. I setup a ZimbraBackup user on my File Server (AD). Then used that username and password to mount the Samba share and ensure the folder I mount to the ZimbraBackup user has full control. I have not run into any permission issues with Zimbra or my file server.

[admin1]

Thanks again xeon.

[ewilen]

Originally Posted by admin1

Thank you Krishopper and xeon.

To Krishopper:
The space that the backups occupy in the source location seem much smaller than in the target (copied-to) location. Am I missing something?

Since you're running ZCS 5, your backups default to using hard links for data that is redundant between full backups. If you use cp to copy individual full backups, you break the hard links and the data takes up a lot more space.

If you want to preserve the hard links then you need to use both a replication method and a target storage system that supports them. E.g. rsync -aH to a *nix system. cp --preserve=links should also do the trick but it may use more bandwidth (depending on what's already sitting on the target). On the other hand cp --preserve=links may be faster (depending on what's already sitting on the target, and bandwidth) and it'll probably use less memory.

Not sure about CIFS shares or the underlying filesystem.

See also: Ajcody-Backup-Restore-Issues - Zimbra :: Wiki