Full Server Backup and Restore of “open source version”

[dkarp]

Originally Posted by danfluidmind

I agree. I could easily ask my friends and family to pitch in 5 bucks per year for a really nice mail server with full backup and that would work with their Macs or Outlook. But I can't exactly ask them to pay $25/year for use of my personal server. I'm not giving them 24/7 support, after all. If the server goes down for a day or two, it's tough doodoo for them :-). But it IS important to me that I DON'T lose all their (or my) email if the hard drives die.

I definitely agree. But if you're only running 5 or 10 (or 25) accounts, what's the need for hot backups? Quiesce the system at 3am, rsync the data to a different drive or different host, and bring it back up. Like you said, you don't need 24/7 uptime, and the downtime required to sync a few mailboxes shouldn't be substantial.

Originally Posted by danfluidmind

And that's a good point about personal users recommending and installing it for businesses. We've been using Exchange at my office for the past few years (about 160 users). After I get Zimbra up and running on my personal server, we'll be able to evaluate it in actual use to see if it will do all we need it to do for our business. Unfortunately I won't be able to evaluate how well the backup, Outlook/iSync and mobile phone features work. ALL things that we currently use extensively with Exchange and that we'd need to make sure still worked as well if we made the switch.

You can get a free 60-day Network Edition trial license from the Zimbra website.

[jholder]

Just to bounce off what Dan said,
You can simply rsync the /opt/zimbra folder to other location. . .and that would be a good backup. (I don't like tarring up the files because it can be a lot of hassle during restoration.)

You totally have "Full Backup" of the server if you do that, as everything is in the /opt/zimbra folder.

The NE provides extended functionability of a task that you can already do. . .which is what you really pay for in the NE.

[czaveri]

Originally Posted by bjquinn

What's the status of the hot backup script as of when you last worked on it? Does it work fairly well? Where would I get a copy of your latest script?

Thanks for the help, and good luck with finding a new place!

Here's the post with the script:

Full Server Backup and Restore of “open source version”

I agree more with wannabetenor in the previous post.

[bjquinn]

Question for wannabetenor - right, but if I just do a simple rsync of /opt/zimbra while the server is running, what risk is there of "losing" or of "getting out of sync" between mySQL vs the email files, etc.? I mean, I don't even mind having to restore some stuff by hand as long as my emails are there, and I could restore the calendars, etc. What is the danger of just rsync'ing up /opt/zimbra WHILE it's running and attempting to restore mailboxes, address books and calendars, etc. to another zimbra server?

[czaveri]

Originally Posted by bjquinn

Question for wannabetenor - right, but if I just do a simple rsync of /opt/zimbra while the server is running, what risk is there of "losing" or of "getting out of sync" between mySQL vs the email files, etc.? I mean, I don't even mind having to restore some stuff by hand as long as my emails are there, and I could restore the calendars, etc. What is the danger of just rsync'ing up /opt/zimbra WHILE it's running and attempting to restore mailboxes, address books and calendars, etc. to another zimbra server?

In my limited understanding:

You will very likely have an entry in mysql pointing to an email that does not exist or have an email sitting idly without being referenced in the database. In the same way, have a pointer to a document that does not exist or have a document without reference in database, ...

Since, Zimbra is quite complex (complex because your email or relevant data flows through a number of components when it arrives, is deleted, etc.), we cannot easily predict the outcome of such a condition.

[bjquinn]

Well, then is it likely that I'll lose an email here or there, or possibly I'll lose some calendar entries, etc., or will the entire structure be unreadable. I really need a backup (obviously), and shutting it down may be out of the question due to the sheer amount of email people seem to have these days, even if there ARE only a few accounts. So if I just run this irresponsible online rsync, is it likely/possible to just lose a bit (who cares - you lose up to 24 hours worth since the last backup anyway), or is it likely/possible that the entire /opt/zimbra will be rendered pretty much utterly useless?

[dkarp]

Originally Posted by bjquinn

Well, then is it likely that I'll lose an email here or there, or possibly I'll lose some calendar entries, etc., or will the entire structure be unreadable. I really need a backup (obviously), and shutting it down may be out of the question due to the sheer amount of email people seem to have these days, even if there ARE only a few accounts. So if I just run this irresponsible online rsync, is it likely/possible to just lose a bit (who cares - you lose up to 24 hours worth since the last backup anyway), or is it likely/possible that the entire /opt/zimbra will be rendered pretty much utterly useless?

The best answer I can give you is to ask this question on the MySQL forums. If you can rsync a running, active MySQL instance, you may be able to make a running rsync kinda-sorta-mostly work with the caveats that you might lose a few messages and you may have to reindex all the restored mailboxes. If MySQL can't be rysnc'ed while it's running and active, this will not work at all and your "backup" will be useless.

[tbullock]

Personally I wouldn't rely on a copy of /opt/zimbra unless I made that copy while the Zimbra services were stopped.

[bjquinn]

I found this looking up the feasibility of backing up mySQL while it's running...

Does Zimbra use myISAM or InnoDB?


RE: rsync and mysql with users connected

Tony Abernethy
Fri, 23 Jun 2006 10:47:01 -0700
With the usual caveats of "Your Mileage May Vary", this may give you an idea of how far you can push things and get away with it.
In practice, I back up production MySQL databases when they are running. Not that big a deal.

Some notes on improving the odds (of getting away with it):
One logical rsync is two rsyncs back-to-back.
The first one to "do all the work"
The second one to catch anything that changed during the first.
This still leaves a window of expsure, but it is fairly small.

If the rsync is over internet (or WAN) links,
a local rsync to a staging area and the long slow rsync from something "stable".

This is with straight MyISAM tables. I would expect trouble from anything with "transactional integrity".
With MyISAM, things are simple enough so that even if you catch somehting in mid-something, its actually pretty hard to trash the table. That's hard, not impossible. Actually with staged backups, it's pretty well impossible to actually do yourself in.
The only time I've gotten bit (that I'm aware of) is the .MYD and the .MYI out of sync and adding a new record and getting bit because the autoincrement record already existed. Actually more funny than serious.

[dkarp]

Zimbra uses InnoDB tables for -- you guessed it -- transactional integrity.