[SOLVED] Backup of Open source ZImbra

[oliverm]

Hi chaps.

What should I include in a backup of our linux box now that zimbra is running on it ?

Is there a list of particular folders and DB's that need to be backed up ?

We host online backups for companies, and it would be good if we could create an addon module to our backup that does this as a standard option, but I need more info.

Olly

[oliverm]

Looking at the Simple Shell Script on the wiki (Open Source Edition Backup Procedure - ZimbraWiki) it seems that its just the /opt/zimbra folder thats required for a backup.

Is this correct ?

Olly

[mmorse]

yup (try to keep all the permissions intact - there's a script zmfixperms that you can run if need be but better to not have too)

Thought you we're going with the ne trial for a bit - or even the full NE - decided not to? Care to share your reasons? (even if it's price)

[oliverm]

Well, several things together really. We could not for the love of tony get the rPath based appliance to work. Eventually we got hold of someone with rpath experience, got the IP changed, but then the zimbra ports weren't open, and the services claimed they were starting.

At that point we setup the OS version just so there was something to show the clients.

The pricing is reasonable as far as a per mailbox price is concerned, but with a minimum spend of 100 mailboxes per month, its beyond our requirements at the moment. We need the abilities of the NE version (ie to compete with Exchange), but for clients with small number of users.

We did think about hosting it ourselves and rebilling the clients, but we dont have a clue as to the level of interest and so the investment is just blind spending.

It's shame. Zimbra NE is the only Exchange option out there, and small companies are crying out for the same features but at a reduced price. If it could be packaged and aimed at smaller firms it would be in good demand.

For now we will use the OS version to show clients and see what they say.

Olly

[mmorse]

There are a bunch of TCO as well as feature comparisons (ppt's, pdf's, webinars etc) between zimbra & exchange. Feel free to contact sales@zimbra.com with your thoughts. I'm sure they'll throw you a bunch of material but who knows, you might have another angle to consider/add to the list.

We have these discussions (about no support editions/quantity variations in licenses) every few releases or so...not to get this started up again, but check out some of the comments on:
/forums/administrators/10986-could-zimbra-consider-la-carte-pricing.html
/forums/users/11403-personal-edition.html
/forums/migration/7520-switching-paid-version.html
/forums/administrators/8945-offering-zimbra-my-customers.html

[oliverm]

To be honest I was kinda suprised that there was even a limit at all. In this day and age of micro payments and the ease of credit card charging, having a system that just bills for what you use would seem to be...ideal.

[mmorse]

who knows-maybe the yahoo deal will facilitate some of that
If it's ok - I'm gonna mark this thread as solved-as the original backup question is over, but you can certainly still reply/discuss

[oliverm]

Sorry, forgot to ask, if the zimbra services aren't stoppd before a backup runs, what will possibly be skipped during the backup ?

I'm testing the backups here and i've noticed that the backups dont show any errors even with the zimbra services running.

Olly

[dkarp]

You'll have some race conditions -- blobs may be missing for messages, etc. And I'm not sure that the indexes and database files are guaranteed to be non-corrupt in that case.