[Kroupware] Cyrus Backup strategy

[Martin Konold]

Am Mittwoch, 23. Juli 2003 15:25 schrieb Andrew Kohlsmith:

Hi,

> > What backup strategy would you recommend for the Cyrus mailstore? To me
> > it seems that you can basically copy the files in /kolab/var/imapd/spool
> > with a certain degree of confidence.

Yes, one of the big advantages of Kolab compared to database like approaches 
(Lotus, Exchange, OGo) backup is fairly simple and recovery can be easily 
done on single messages if required withoput much fuss.

When doing backup a plain copy of the files in imapd/spool is fine. 

When recovering single messages simply restore the relevant NNN. file and run 
reconstruct user.USER. 

I recommend to make the restored message available to the user in an extra 
folder called BACKUP so that the user knows that this message got restored 
from the backup. Often it is easier and more convinient for the administrator 
to restore the complete folder in question and make this complete folder 
available in the BACKUP folder. 

The later is especially useful because users typically cannot tell you the 
imap UID of the accidentally deletet message ;-)

> LVM snapshots would work well here too.

Yes, I like LVM snapshots very much, they are extremly fast and therefor allow 
you to put a time stamp on your backup and this also helps a lot for a 
coherent view at the data.

Yours,
-- martin

Dipl.-Phys. Martin Konold
e r f r a k o n
Erlewein, Frank, Konold & Partner - Beratende Ingenieure und Physiker
Nobelstrasse 15, 70569 Stuttgart, Germany
fon: 0711 67400963, fax: 0711 67400959
email: martin.konold at erfrakon.de