How do you back-up your server?

nike_guy_man's picture

They have: 840 posts

Joined: Sep 2000

Just a quick question for anyone with a server...
How do you back up your files?
Currently I have a PHP file run at midnight with CRON. The PHP file zips up my web directories and then emails it to 3 different addresses on 3 different computers... I then upload the zip file to an online storage facility.

How do you back up yours?
Is there a better way than gzip for me?

Laughing out loud

mairving's picture

They have: 2,256 posts

Joined: Feb 2001

It depends upon the purpose of the server and the setup of the server. If it is a webserver, you have to look at it a couple of different ways. One is what files are absolutely critical to be backed up. The other thing to consider is how fast can I restore everything in the event of something like a hard drive crash. So if you only backup data files and the hard drive goes out, how fast could you get all of that restored. So you need to make sure that what you backed up can be restored fairly quickly. It is best to have a backup server around just in case. At work, with a Novell server, a NT server and a SQL Server, I use a tape backup and other methods to make sure of data integrity.

Mark Irving
I have a mind like a steel trap; it is rusty and illegal in 47 states

nike_guy_man's picture

They have: 840 posts

Joined: Sep 2000

I'm talking about web servers...
I have all my config files backed up to a separate file, and when I change anything I re-back them up
All my web pages are backed up daily...
Is there any other way you can suggest that is still free, yet more efficient than what I have now?

Laughing out loud

mairving's picture

They have: 2,256 posts

Joined: Feb 2001

You have the bases covered since you always want to have more than one source of backup and you want to store it offsite. The only other thing to do is to test the backup periodical and make sure that it can be restored properly.

Mark Irving
I have a mind like a steel trap; it is rusty and illegal in 47 states

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