backup option?

[sander815]

is the backup option also available in the reseller cp?
i don't see it in the online demo

[jdlitson]

The backup is only in the user panel.
So if you are a reseller or even the admin you would just use the user panel backup utillity to backup your domain.

A reseller has both a reseller panel and user panel but you only need one login to access both at the same time. Ther is a link in the control panel.

Hope that helps -Jason

[jlasman]

How about a reseller who wants to backup all his client's domains. Shouldn't there be an automated way to do that?

Jeff

[jdlitson]

Your users have the ability to backup everything in there domain themselves.
Just like when admins had to create e-mail account for there useres now they can do it them selves.

Here is a great book in pdf format which you can download.
It will teach you how to make automated backups on your sever and lots of other security and optimization info.

Securing & Optimizing Linux: Red Hat Edition v1.3 (http://www.openna.com/products/books/sol/solrhe.php?e=0,1,4)

Jason

[jlasman]

That's a great book, Jason.

Just so you know, I've been backing up Linux since 1994 :) . I used a slackware distribution based on Linux kernel v.0.99 (I still have the cd somewhere; the cd included multiple floppy-disk images) to run what may have been the first webhosting company; certainly one of the first.

But...

Others are not as good systems administration as you and I; they'd benefit from clicking on one button to create a tar file of the appropriate directories (John could set up a default but there could be a "setup" area where people could modify the selection), and then send only the changes (via rsync) to a selected offsite server.

We've included such a service for clients who rent systems for us for several years now, and they seem to appreciate it. We're beginning to offer offsite backup as a separate service, but I'd like to see the functionality automated in DirectAdmin simply to help make DirectAdmin the best of the control panels :).

Jeff

[Clearhosting]

Is nice as a webhost provider you can offer your clients backups of their site, think this is an ace option if it was implemented

[jcalvert]

Is ther a way to backup client account info, not the actual content of their sites, but the account info i set up as a reseller eg my packeges, user accounts etc??

Many Thanks

JC

[DirectAdmin Support]

There is no feature to do that, but all of the user settings are stored in:

/usr/local/directadmin/data/users/username/*

all user setting, limits, domain settings and what not, are all there.

I'm not sure if you have access to that, as you would need root.

John

[jcalvert]

Could i please make a request that this a this feature is considered for resellers sometime in a future release of DA. From recent experience I (personally) feel that this would be a valuable option.

thanks

Jcalvert

[xcensus]

I agree, a reseller backup feature would rock ! Even if it just backs up the core information, so in the even of a crash it can easily piece it all back together, now an admin one that puts all the resellers and user accounts back in place would rule :)

Something a rival control panel does not have is a full recovery feature to restore resellers, its gotta be done manually!. Also, hows about backups to the second hdd ?

[jlasman]

There are at least two hosting solutions that do offer it:

Sun Cobalt servers have the CMU (Cobalt Migration utility) which was written for server migration between servers. There's also a script called raqbackup.sh that calls CMU to create a complete backup. We run it weekly on all our RaQ servers, and daily on some (under contract).

Plesk PSA has had it since at least version 2.5. It's called the Plesk Migration Utility.

We've successfully used it as well, to migrate between Plesk servers.

Jeff

[S2S-Robert]

Such a feature would surely be very appreciated. Especially the admin global backup which would include everything would be awsome!

[xcensus]

The ultimate feature would be for a button on the admin and reseller pages, that allows you to download the small config files, so in the event of a FULL re-install you just re-upload this file, and bang admin puts everything back, reseller puts all clients back etc, then clients can upload their own backups

[jlasman]

The ultimate would have to allow me, the admin, to backup the entire server.

Not that I wouldn't like to have a "backup button" for resellers, but what sounds better in your advertising:

"Nightly backup included"

or

"We allow you to backup your sites"

??? :)

Jeff

[S2S-Robert]

I agree with Jlasman, a full server backup feature would be very appreciated.

[DirectAdmin Support]

Hello,

All sorts of backup goodies are planned for the future. At the momment I'm trying to finish up FreeBSD so that we don't have to keep saying "We'll do that after FreeBSD" :)

John

[jdlitson]

You can have full backups now if you want.
Here is a link to a free PDF that can teach you how, and even automate the task with cron. You wouldn't even need a button! Wow :D

Securing & Optimizing Linux: Red Hat Edition v1.3 (http://www.openna.com/products/books/sol/solrhe.php?e=0,1,4)

-Jason

[DigitalIsles]

Any word on this yet? I had to restore for a client from a manual backup and it was a nightmare!

You need to have the data and in addition reset permissions on all of the files, create the users or just copy the passwd and group files...

Not fun at all! :rolleyes:

-Robert

[DigitalIsles]

Anybody out there?

This is a serious issue. I have many VDS customers that use this software and have no way to restore or backup properly, at least in an automated fasion.

Does nobody else care about this feature?

-Robert

[DirectAdmin Support]

I care about this feature :) but the fact is there just arn't enough hours in the day. It will be implemented, but not sure when. You can look into creating a custom cron job until then, making use of:
http://www.directadmin.com/paths.html

John

[S2S-Robert]

If somebody already created this custom cron job I would sure like to hear it.

[jlasman]

I'll be writing the cron job shortly; in my case it'll be server-wide and will require root privileges to install and run.

(I already have cron jobs for backing up both Plesk and Sun Cobalt RaQ servers, so it's just a matter of making sure I have all the necessary directories.)

My backup cron-job will be suitable for my needs, but I'll be happy to consult with people who need one to do other things besides what I've decided I need.

The cron-job will require another server (hopefully on a local network to avoid bandwidth charges for backup) to store the backup. It'll store two copies and will be usable at any frequency. In my case we run two backup cron-jobs nightly... so we have a full backup from the most previous week and the week before that, and also a full backup from the previous night and the one before that.

This can take a lot of space... though the backups are compressed they do take up over half the space that the full server configuration and data takes up; the set of backups I'm talking about takes (for example) almost 4.5 gigs if the original server content takes up 1.5 gigs. If your server content consists of a lot of already compressed files (image files, etc.), it will take up a lot more.

At the minimum the system storing the backup (I call this the "target" system) will need to run an ftp daemon.

Backing up an entire server configuration to a desktop system isn't practical unless you're lucky enough to have an awful lot of bandwidth to your desktop and an awful lot of storage on your desktop.

Jeff

[hostpc.com]

Hi Jeff - I'd be very interested in this ... are you planning on releasing the scripts ?

From what I've seen, the DA release of server backups is coming, but I'd really like to have something in place soon.

If I can provide any assistance, or you need a "backup buddy", let me know. I've got servers in Rackshack and DV2.

Thanks

[jlasman]

Thanks for the offer, hostpc.

All I really need right now is time; I run a live DA server at my colo (Level3 in Tustin, CA), and a test DA server at my home, on it's own static IP#.

It won't take me long at all to have a backup scenario in place, but I'll have to test it to see if it restores a working system.

And there, my friend, lies the difficulty.

:)

Jeff

[jdwright]

Im interested as well. Got it working yet? :)

[jlasman]

Unfortunately not; I've been quite busy lately.

I hope to get it done next week but I have a system to deliver first.

Jeff

[sander815]

is this option planned for a next update?

[bvvelzen]

Ok, we don't have a 2nd server in the local network so we need to backup over a big distance so that means bandwidth.

We are planning ourself to make a simpel backup script but not with ftp, but with rsync. Normaly most site's from the users keep the same, so this wil save some bandwidth.

Or is there a big difference with ftp and rsync?

[jlasman]

Originally posted by bvvelzen
Or is there a big difference with ftp and rsync?
There certainly is a big difference. With FTP you move either everything, or with a bit of scripting ingenuity, only the files that have changed. With rsync, you move only the specific bits that have changed.

No, it's not magic, it's just a lot of work for the processors on both systems.

If you're going to do rsync you should have a lot of spare processor power, and you should plan on doing it in the middle of your slowest period (for most of us, that's between 1 am, and 4 am, when the cron.daily starts.

My recommendation would be to NOT try to do rsync as part of cron.daily; too many other things are going on at the same time.

Jeff

[sander815]

is it possible to say in how many time approximately this option will be available? backup option for resellers

[ProWebUK]

Originally posted by DirectAdmin Support
There is no feature to do that, but all of the user settings are stored in:

/usr/local/directadmin/data/users/username/*

all user setting, limits, domain settings and what not, are all there.

I'm not sure if you have access to that, as you would need root.

John

John,

If I created a temporary backup script is all everything a user would need in the following 2 paths:

/home/username/domains/*
/usr/local/directadmin/data/users/username/*

A full server image not really needed by DA i don't think although backup all sites / DirectAdmin settings aswell as individual sites would be what is the best option here.

As i said if its only them 2 paths involved i will try getting an advanced script sorted that could be run in a variety of ways

backup [options]

Options:
allsites -- backup all sites setup within DirectAdmin
da_settings -- Backup all DirectAdmin configs and settings
site -- backup an individual site

Should be quite easy to get something going like that :)

I *could* also include an option to ftp any backups to an external location although the main idea would be an organised tree of folders.

Chris

[hostpc.com]

Chris, We've got 10" of snow on the ground, just since midnight, and another 12-14" coming ... I would be ETERNALLY grateful if you had something like this working to perk up my otherwise AWFUL weekend :)

I'd even be willing to make a small donation to "the cause" for such a script.

Thanks

[DirectAdmin Support]

Hello,

There are a few others including /etc/virutal, /var/spool/mail, /var/spool/virtual, /var/named, and the proftpd stuff /etc/proftpd.* ...

you can get the full list in
http://directadmin.com/paths.html

John

[sander815]

we are now backing up the described dirs in http://directadmin.com/paths.html, but we take the complete /etc/ and /var/ and /usr/ dirs and the home dirs that belong to my account to a second HD

In case of a HD crash, is it easy to restore the server with all thsi data being backed up?

[sander815]

hmm, is it possible that DA gets in trouble when tarring these large dirs?
Every morning sites are unreachable, and pop mail goes down. Seems like it goes down everytime the backup starts

backup starts around 04:00
thats when the webserver seems to go down:

5:09 mywebserver Hostname unknown (DNS timeout) 8000 Singapore, SG

4:58 mywebserver Hostname unknown (DNS timeout) 8000 Singapore, SG

4:47 mywebserver Hostname unknown (DNS timeout) 8000 Texas, TX

4:36 mywebserver Connection timed out 110 Amsterdam, NL

3:33 mywebserver OK 0 Amsterdam, NL

[Icheb]

Originally posted by sander815
hmm, is it possible that DA gets in trouble when tarring these large dirs?
Every morning sites are unreachable, and pop mail goes down. Seems like it goes down everytime the backup starts

backup starts around 04:00
thats when the webserver seems to go down:

5:09 mywebserver Hostname unknown (DNS timeout) 8000 Singapore, SG

4:58 mywebserver Hostname unknown (DNS timeout) 8000 Singapore, SG

4:47 mywebserver Hostname unknown (DNS timeout) 8000 Texas, TX

4:36 mywebserver Connection timed out 110 Amsterdam, NL

3:33 mywebserver OK 0 Amsterdam, NL

Heh, my ideas worked :D
I've been working on a backup to offsite server script using rsync.
But the main problem with rsync is you only see the real advantage when you backup the files before you tar them, otherwise you can just ftp the tarred file every day.
So now i first create a mysql backup, send all stuff to the offsite server, which starts packing all files into a .tar.bz2 file. The second server had a load of 2.?? when i tried it for the first time, so it can cause a high load, but downtime, don't really know...

[sander815]

pop mail goes down every morning, and sites can't be reached every morning....already mailed support

http comes back up, but pop has te be restarted manually, or server rebooted

backups used to take a couple of minutes, but the last few days it takes 5 hours or so

[ProWebUK]

Originally posted by sander815
http comes back up, but pop has te be restarted manually, or server rebooted


A few things you would need to do before we can help you:

- Check your logs for any reasons why they are stopping not starting (DA should bring both all your mail and apache back up and email you immediatly if it fails)

- If the software goes down at a certain time check the top command just before and during that time to check for possible causes.

- Tell us what errors you are getting if any when starting the software! i guess you are sometimes getting errors since you said sometimes it needs a reboot?

John is away until the 27th, not sure about Mark but either way you may want to install SIM temporarily on them services. Installation guide for SIM can be found in the checklist (link in sig)

Chris

[DirectAdmin Support]

Hello,

I've sent him a reply basically telling him the same thing :) I'm away from home, but will never be away from the internt ;) The only thing I don't have access to is the source code... and high speed internet (eww dialup :P)

John