Re: backing up IMAP mailboxes
Daniel Quinlan said
> hi,
Howdy Daniel.
> I need to backup the IMAP mailboxes on one of our clients servers. It has a local DAT drive and i'm familiar with using tar.
>
I have a couple of horror stories related to using tar to save important
data... I now use BRU... as do all of my clients...
> my concern is if the MTA tries to deliver mail whilst tar has an IMAP
> mailbox locked to back it up what's going to happen?
>
> Would it be acceptable to stop the MTA and the IMAP server for the duration
> of the backup? surely ISP's wouldn't be doing this.....
>
Whether or not it would be acceptable depends on how long the service would be
off-line. If you could minimize the amount of time needed and choose a time
with little mail traffic, then it might not matter. As per what ISP's are
doing... it wouldn't surprise me if some don't even care if the service goes
down while doing the backup. Some likely don't care if mailboxes get backed
up... may even be legal reasons to let messages "expire"...
> any thoughts?
>
Here are a couple of thoughts that screetched into my brain whilst reading
your message:
1) Turn-off the MTA just long enough to make a disk-to-disk copy of the
mailbox.
2) Put the mailboxes on a partition that's part of a raid and turn off the
raid and copy from the inactive device (if that's even possible).
3) Have the MTA/IMAPD store two copies of each mailbox and turn off one of
them while backing up... figure out how to re-sync the boxes later...
4) have the MTA deliver to another MTA, turn-off the second one while doing
the backup/copy, let the first spin retrying the delivery until you're
done.
5) Replicate the entire mailserver, turn one off and backup from it... same
resync issues as #3...
6) Figure out a way to use CODA to do the replication/resynchronization...
7) Use a filter to store a copy of incoming messages in a traditional mbox
format and back it up, use savelog to rotate the copy.
> thanks,
These are TOTALLY off the cuff with absolutely no time/energy/thought spent
on feasibility or actual implementation, but they may shed some light on a
method that would actually work... or not...
> --
> Daniel Quinlan daniel@netwise.net.au
> Netwise Australia ph: 0417 677 377
> "Engineering Network Solutions" fax: 07 3216 0226
>
Chuck
--
Chuck Stickelman, Owner E-Mail: stick@richnet.net
Practical Network Design Voice: +1-419-610-4201
3068 Noblet Road Text: 4196104201@messaging.sprintpcs.com
Mansfield, OH 44903-8634 USA
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