> Hi,I've just started a job with little or no IT infrastructure. In previous
> jobs there has always been infrastructure in place to back up source control
> and the SQL Servers we use for development, UAT etc.I am using Subversion
for
> source control. How
> best do people handle nightly back ups?What I am thinking is that our
> subversion server should be RAID 5 and really the best I can hope for here
> with the financial restraints is to run some sort of FTP back up to a back
up
> server as a nightly task.Do yo
> u think this is adequate cover or how better can I cover my ass?Is there a
way
> using Subversion that I can back it up so it is in a recoverable
> format?
Subversion is just a bunch of files, no matter what format you're
using (berkeley db or file system), so any backup software can pick them up,
and restoring it is easy.
What you should focus on first is reliable hardware. Backups are
essential, but reliable hardware is too: better safe than sorry. So you should
have a disk-setup with mirrorring in raid, e.g. raid 1. This costs you twice
the disks, but it's well worth it: a diskcrash won't hurt you at all, replace
the disk and you can continue, no dataloss whatsoever.
For backups, you have to use 2 setups: one for daily backups and one
for off-site datastorage. A strategy which is often used is to have a backup
harddisk inside the server. You backup the data to that harddisk daily (which
is handy if your server is in a serverpark far away and the data is huge (e.g.
gigabytes), and you for example backup every couple of days or every day on a
tape and place that tape outside the building, so in case of fire, you're
still safe.
If the data is on a server in a rack somewhere at an ISP, you could
schedule a simple pkzip call on the server which zips the subversion
repository folders, and you then ftp that zip off the server using protected
FTP channels so only a given IP address can connect to the port and the data
channel is encrypted. The file is then stored locally on a folder which is
backupped daily.
Use a good DDS tape drive, no fancy formats, stick with the standard.
The problem with fancy formats is that if in case of fire you have to rebuild
the machines, you have to be able to purchase a drive which can READ your
backup tapes :). DDS drives are available from various brands so there should
be one available in case of fire.
But above all, use reliable hardware: mirrorred harddisks.
FB
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