How fully to backup a server (with plesk installed on it)

[ludot]

How to fully backup a server (with plesk installed on it)

Hi all,

As a newbie, I would need some basic information about how to backup my plesk server! I know how to back up with plesk but we can just backup the plesk configuration, domains, clients, reseller...

So if I understand well, Plesk cannot back the whole server, so I was wondering what would be the best solution to backup my server with some external programs!

I found out this solution Backup-manager : http://www.backup-manager.org/

What do you think about it??? Would you advice some particular programs compatible with plesk ???

Thanks for advice

Ludo

 

[ludot]

With a command line using tar.gz

It sounds like I can first start to backup my server with a command line using tar.gz! I found this script here : http://tldp.org/LDP/lame/LAME/linux-admin-made-easy/server-backup.html

tar -zcvpf /archive/full-backup-`date '+%d-%B-%Y'`.tar.gz \
--directory / --exclude=mnt --exclude=proc --exclude=var/spool/squid .

Note : the dot at the end of the line is required !!!!!!!!

Then I can tell where to store the backup and the name of my archive : /archive/full-backup-`date '+%d-%B-%Y'`.tar.gz

I want all the directories to be backed-up with the variable "\" after the name of the file (but you could specify a path to a particular folder and then excluded some directories inside this folder)
And the directories I want to exclude : --directory / --exclude=mnt --exclude=proc --exclude=var/spool/squid --exclude=root/archives .

I also decided to exclude the backups to be backed-up twice : --exclude=root/archives

Do you think there would be some special directories of plesk that would have to be excluded with the variable -"-exclude=" ????????

thanks for help

 

[ludot]

to exclude the backups of plesk, add this variable

--exclude=/var/lib/psa/dumps/

Some more specific directories ?????

 

[ludot]

I can notice thant Backup-Manager exclude some directories : /dev /sys /proc /tmp

It seems for sure that those directories don't need to be backed-up : /proc /tmp
Can someone confirm this please????

And what about those folders : /dev /sys /mnt
Do we need them in case I have to restore some back-up????

 

[ludot]

When using this method to back-up the whole directory structure, you have to go first to the root of your server (cd .. cd ..)
Otherwise you also backup the directory where you're located in (even if it is excluded!! )

 

[ludot]

Getting better and better....

Here is the command line resulting from my investigations

tar -zcvpf /var/archives/backupfullserver/light-backup-`date '+%d-%B-%Y'`.tar.gz \
--directory / --exclude=sys --exclude=tmp --exclude=mnt --exclude=proc --exclude=var/lib/psa/dumps --exclude=var/archives/backupfullserver . > var/archives/backupfullserver/light-backup-`date '+%d-%B-%Y'`.log

It sounds like those folders are really not needed, I had many errors with those not being excluded : /dev /sys /mnt

I still have those errors :
tar: ./var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock: socket ignored
tar: ./var/run/dbus/system_bus_socket: socket ignored
tar: ./var/named/run-root/var/run/dbus/system_bus_socket: socket ignored
tar: ./dev/log: socket ignored

I guess it's better to stop the mysql service before backing up, so the error will probably disappear (I will tell soon)
But I don't know what to do with those directories ??? /dev /var/run /var/named
May be it doesn't matter if I don't exclude them, shall I keep them???

Thanks