RaQ Owners,

I've already suffered two hard drive failures (one at Tera-Byte and one at ServerHost). Let me tell you, when you're a host, these are not fun. I've never actually tried to restore a RaQ using the .raq back up files (because I had some problems with backing up and and never had the .raq files).

I am now backing up daily with both of my servers, and only hope that I won't ever go through that hell again.

But is this really enough? I want to be able to have a server go down, get a replacement up, and be able to restore the system very quickly. Will the RaQ backup system do this for me? I have alot of doubts...
I would like to hear from someone who has done this (if anyone).

Would anyone be interested in writing some code that could individually back up each virtual site and store them somewhere, and then also do the main system files (including MySQL databases). I think this would be a much more reliable system..

BTW! Look for a NEW opening of www.RaQZone.com. I will be adding more information, and a layout to the site!

Thanks,
Brandon Keim

The RAQ back up sucks and will not work. Call Cobalt, they will even tell you this. Their migration utility is even a bigger piece of crap.

We are finishing the development of a program that will take from a tar ball everything you need to restore a RAQ. Users, aliases, mailing list, passwords, files, etc.. It will even give the users the same site number so scripts won't die. We have spent a month developing it. The test have been good. (We actually did a live test from a XTR to a RAQ4 after an XTR barfed Friday. It restored everything like a charm. We are just waiting for customer feedback. (Complaints like scripts stopped working, permission issues, etc..).

It is not a true back up as it is a disaster recovery tool. You will need to run some crons to have a tar ball ftped to another box. When your box dies and needs to be recovered you will need to move the tar ball. Either through the Net or server to server. That is what takes the longest. The program we have restores the box quickly. We did 200 sites in under an hour.

We have not packaged it into a nice GUI yet, it is still raw script in C and PHP, but it works!!! We have hosted for two years on RAQs waiting for Cobalt to fix it. The XTR was the straw that broke the camels back for us. The latest and greatest has the same crap back up that they even admit does not work.

We have started to work on the Miva and MySQL restore. These shouldn't be too hard as it really isn't tied into the Cobalt Secret Sauce.

Why would anyone want to put 200 sites on an RAQ anyways? most id ever put on is 100 - 120.

How much will the script be selling for?

Thanks.


Originally posted by UmBillyCord
The RAQ back up sucks and will not work. Call Cobalt, they will even tell you this. Their migration utility is even a bigger piece of crap.

We are finishing the development of a program that will take from a tar ball everything you need to restore a RAQ. Users, aliases, mailing list, passwords, files, etc.. It will even give the users the same site number so scripts won't die. We have spent a month developing it. The test have been good. (We actually did a live test from a XTR to a RAQ4 after an XTR barfed Friday. It restored everything like a charm. We are just waiting for customer feedback. (Complaints like scripts stopped working, permission issues, etc..).

It is not a true back up as it is a disaster recovery tool. You will need to run some crons to have a tar ball ftped to another box. When your box dies and needs to be recovered you will need to move the tar ball. Either through the Net or server to server. That is what takes the longest. The program we have restores the box quickly. We did 200 sites in under an hour.

We have not packaged it into a nice GUI yet, it is still raw script in C and PHP, but it works!!! We have hosted for two years on RAQs waiting for Cobalt to fix it. The XTR was the straw that broke the camels back for us. The latest and greatest has the same crap back up that they even admit does not work.

We have started to work on the Miva and MySQL restore. These shouldn't be too hard as it really isn't tied into the Cobalt Secret Sauce.

Sounds like exactly what I want. Another nice feature you might think about adding is restoring single sites... I've never needed to do this, but if I did, that would be a really cool feature.

Now the big question is, how much?

Aloha very curious about this also
Mahalo

Technics, 200 sites? on the NEW XTR. 512 RAM, 933 MHz PIII - should be easy. :o
Other then the fact the XTR is crap and Cobalt no longer sales it.

200 low impact sites on a RAQ4. No problem. We off load all MySQL to our dedicated MySQL servers, we do not support ASP, and if resource use of a site is high, we move them to our Linux boxes and let them pay the same price. To let you know, we no longer buy RAQ's for our hosting needs. It is just hard to move customers we have had for a while to a completely new control panel. They did not like the 'Apples to Oranges' move at all. So now we just leave them on RAQ's. To let you know, we limit to 150 tops on our RAQ 3 - 4s.

Price?? We have not decided. What do you guys think it is worth? To be honest when we started the development we were thinking Open Source the whole way. Then as the hours mounted, the less likely it was.

Before we try to sell anything, we will give some away for host wanting to help test it and fine tune it. Our goal is to only recoup development cost.

You could do similar to what websupport did.

Let the script be free. But to obtain any support they had to pay a $100 license fee. License holders could also be the first to get latest versions of the script if you decide you should wish to update it.

I'll be glad to test it. I don't see what could go wrong. The scripts make a backup copy of my server and FTP (or someway) transfer it to another server for safe keeping. It's not like the scripts gonna delete my server. LOL.

But ya I'll be willing to test it... robert@dim8.net drop me an email.

True, but the more eyes, the better.

I'll be a tester! Especially for a free copy!

Fair price...well if you want to actually sell copies of the script instead of just put a price that no one can or will pay...I'd go with $50-$75

Aloha,
well my box is pretty much a beta box and play box so would be glad to test it out
dont have a lot of domains on it about 15
one has a IKONBOARD
the others somew asp stuff
adn a couple are going to have DB hookups with asp
so let me know

I'll help test. Drop me a mail, if you like. I'm a very new RaQ 4i admin.

I'm pretty green, so you'll probably have to give me explicit instructions. Maybe it will help you write your documentation. I'm also probably more likely than most to actually need the backup. ;)

I have less than 10 sites on it right now, and all of them are fairly static.

Jason

UmBillyCord,

I would also be interested in your script - you should be able to send me an e-mail from this forum (or find my contact details on our site).

Thanks,

Johan

I have received a lot of request and e-mails. Everyone has different needs for it already. Because of this, I am thinking we may get the script to do what WE need it to, then release it open source. Then others can *tweek* it. I have saved all the e-mails and I will get in touch with those who posted here.

If you could add me to your list (if i'm not already) that would be great ... robert@dim8.net is my email.

I do agree with you.. it's YOUR script, customize it, create it, modify it, do whatever to it that helps you than let us tweak it. (I probably won't tweak since it already does what I need).

Thanks a lot..

Wow... I can't wait to have the script to run on my RaQ.

Please add me also.

but ofcourse the problem most people will have that they have only one box..it makes no sense in storing the backup on your own server.

I think i just invented a new type of hosting :)

rent a raq, and sell storage for raq backup :)

it makes no sense in storing the backup on your own server

Actually it does.

1) Just in case you get that one customer who deletes their /web dir and does not have a copy of their site. It is just good business to back up, even if you do not advertise you do.
2) Having a cron run each night to tar up restore files is a good idea. Of course if the HD is shot, it doesn't do anything. But if you can mount the hard drive and move the tarball to a new RAQ, it will save a lot of time then having to do this when the box is down. If your colo facility does this, it makes it easy for them to just go to a specified dir and see a pre-packaged tar ball to move.


the problem most people will have that they have only one box

OK. Then once a week, move a back up to your home computer. It only will be a few GB's of month of traffic to do this. You will be glad you have at least something if your box is cracked.

* Disclaimer - nothing beats daily back up. Above are only suggestions. :D

We don't plan on storing the backup on our own server. 4webspace.com provides backup space on their servers for a very cheap price.

Question: If the script runs on cron and is instructed to run once a week and to FTP the backup to another server, we don't need to schedule the backup process in the Control Panel?

Thanks.

Also, how long does it take to backup space + ftp it to another server? any ideas? Thanks. (Estimate)

The script(s) does not need cron and does nothing with it. The script will actually take the tar ball of needed files and restore the RAQ. You will need to get the tar ball over to the new RAQ be restored. Once it is on the RAQ, you run the script and it will parse out everything the way Cobalt needs it to be.

[Sorry for the many questions]

If the script doesn't require cron, how do we set it to run once every day or once every week? The script can FTP the tar file to another server, correct?

Sorry.

I really cannot wait to test the script. Sounds fantastic!!!

-Rob

I can't wait either! SOUNDS AWESOME!
:D :) ;) :cool:

There are two processes. One you need to set. This is the cron to back up your files to another server.

The script we are working on is separate. It requires you to move those files back to the server to be restored (or a new box). Once the script has all the files it needs, it will restore the box to get sites back on line. There are somethings we can not restore and will have to be manually fixed. Perhaps someone smarter then us can fine tune it to do more. As of right now here is what we have it doing.

1) Restores the site list (Same IP's and site numbers)
2) Restores the users. (Admin and non-admin)
3) Restores all aliases
4) Restores the password list (only like on like. RAQ4 to RAQ4, 3 to 3 etc..). Each RAQ has a different encryption size, so the 3 won't take a 4's passsword list.
5) Adds FP to all FP sites
6) Parses out the site files back to the /web dir.
7) Rebuilds the mailing list


Here is what it can't do.

1) Re-add the FP "webmaster" password. We have made it to where the script adds as a password the site name. Once the box is restored, you will need to manually reset the password for the FP "webmaster".
2) Re-enable ASP
3) Numerous small things ex.. who had e-mail forwarding, autoresponders, etc.. This is just something we will need to live with until someone else expands upon it.

This is more of a program then a script, as it has a bunch of scripts executing one after another. It also runs error checking. It is very raw, but at least it provides something that is missing for Cobalt users.

We are actually going to do another live 4 to 4 test on a box that has a touchy HD. Once we do this, we will send it to people on the list and post.

I would love to try this script. I have already had a very bad experience with a RAQ backup that would not restore and definitely need something for my RAQ4.

If you can please add me (admin@nvsinc.net) to your e-mail list so that I can be notified when your script becomes available It sounds like a great script.

Thanks,

Norm

we would also love to test your script. please add:
support@lightning-network.com
to your beta testers list.
Regards

Would also love to test your script. please add us:
to your tester list:

wht@netstream.fr

Thanx

I'd really need a replacement for my
zip -r9 backup.zip /home/* :(

I'd be happy to receive a copy aswell... iplexx@intertech.at

Thanks!

We would like to test it as well

support@snakepages.com

thnx in advance

Sorry to bring this topic back on top, but it is (in my opinion) very intresting.

Tera-byte gives you backup-space for almost nothing (1$ a gig). Now how do you use this ?

Wich files do i need to backup ? i can save the /home dir, but this won't be enough in case of a crash.
Until the script from UmBillyCord comes available how do i backup ?

Is the RaQ backup really totally worthless ?

(UmBillyCord please add "fate@chello.nl")

I currently have 1GB of space from Tera-Byte to backup my server and am using Cobalt's Scheduled Backup utility (located in the control panel). Once the script comes out, I'll ask TB to delete the backup file on that server and will start using the backup script that UmBillyCord has created (fanatiatic scripts).

As for backing up, I'm just going to have it back up the websites, usernames, email, etc. Maybe httpd.conf if it's possible. C-ya.

Is the script able to back up MySQL databases as well?

Once the script comes out, I'll ask TB to delete the backup file on that server and will start using the backup script that UmBillyCord has created

Maybe a stupid question, but why does TB have to delete the file for you, don't you have access to that
space ?

Which files or dirs do i have to backup, to not have to manually setup each site again (that would cost me 2 days) after a crash ?

hmm I can't access the backup server via ftp or web browser, only by using the backup utility. Tera-Byte said it was done like that on purpose for security. =)

So I need to have them delete it for me. Knowing them they'll charge $50 dollars to delete it. hehe. (Just kidding Steve)

If you can please add me to your list (gbarcelo@bellsouth.net) when your script becomes available.

Thanks
George Barcelo

Any estimates on when we can start testing the script, i think i can speak for all of us when i say we can't wait to see it in action!:D

I'm the lead programer for the restore utility UmBillyCord has been talking about. Let me explain a little how it works as of right now.

The backups are being done something like this by means of a cron job:

tar -czPf backup.tgz /home/sites/*

right before the sites are tar'd the backup script copies the following files to a directory in the /home/sites/home/ directory:

/etc/mail/virtusertable or /etc/virtusertable
/etc/shadow
/etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf
/etc/passwd
/usr/local/majordomo/lists/site-adm

From these five files all the info needed to restore a normal RaQ or XTR can be parsed by the program.

the program does not do the backups. It just restores the backup onto another box.

right before the sites are tar'd the backup script copies the following files

and

the program does not do the backups. It just restores the backup onto another box.

Uhm sorry to sound stupid, but it is a script which does the backups, and a program which restores ?

Will perl be sufficient, or do i need orso ?

Originally posted by dutchie


and



Uhm sorry to sound stupid, but it is a script which does the backups, and a program which restores ?

Will perl be sufficient, or do i need orso ?


the backups can be done however you wish, just as long as you have /home/sites/* backuped and those 5 other files.
right now we use a cheesy little program I wrote to set up our servers to do backups.

the restore program we're writing takes care of the restoration of the server only. There's a lot of Backup scripts & programs out there, but no way to easily restore a Cobalt server ( that I know of ) with that backup. That is why this program is being written.

Pleeeeeeeeeeeeease add me :smash:

Please add me to your tester list (zippyd0da@aol.com)... Thanks

:dgrin: Update

We put the restore program to the test about 3 weeks ago. We restored a backup from an XTR to a raq4. This was the 2nd beta run for the program and it worked out great (for a beta).

We were able to restore:

about 217 sites.
All users for all the sites:
*giving admin permissions to those who had it.
*giving shell to those who had it.
*All Passwords!!
*All User aliases (no catch-all or forwards yet)

All files:
*All files in the sites /web directory.
*All the files in the /users/*/ directories.
*All file permissions/ownership were kept.

Basically, of the 217 sites moved, very few had any troubles. There were a few minor bug's here and there, but restore was nearly transparent to our customers.

I can't say when it will be released just yet, but I'm confident it will be "soon". I will be getting a mailing list set up here within the next week or two for future updates.

Just a side note:

If you are using tar to compress the files and then ftp them to another server, I would suggest using a program called ftpbackup.

I have been using it for a while and it seems to work nicely. I just have it setup to do a weekly cron and it tar/ftp's it to my home computer over DSL. Following is a snip of what the commands look like:

/bin/tar cfp - /home | gzip | /usr/local/bin/ftpbackup -h remote.ftp.server.com -u user -p password -b filename.tar.gz
/bin/tar cfp - /etc | gzip | /usr/local/bin/ftpbackup -h remote.ftp.server.com -u user -p password -b filename2.tar.gz
/bin/tar cfp - /var | gzip | /usr/local/bin/ftpbackup -h remote.ftp.server.com -u user -p password -b filename3.tar.gz
/bin/tar cfp - /usr/admserv | gzip | /usr/local/bin/ftpbackup -h remote.ftp.server.com -u user -p password -b filename4.tar.gz
/bin/tar cfp - /usr/local | gzip | /usr/local/bin/ftpbackup -h remote.ftp.server.com -u user -p password -b filename5.tar.gz

I got most of my info on the program straight from the Cobalt User archives.

Easy program and doesn't take any space on your server as it is compressing on the fly and FTPing without saving to the source computer.

Slick...

Scott

Please add me to the list for testing...

Thanks (red@djwilliams.net)

There are companies that offer backups services, there are some that require that you install software or scripts, ibackup.com is one, I know of some people that have written their own scripts and ftp directly up to ibackup. <<EDIT>>

I know it is uncertain, but note that if this script is not released open source as originally planned, this thread will be removed once it is for sale. Testers are fine.

It would be nice if everyone would email/PM directly so the thread doesn't end up being 4 pages of 'add me too' posts. :D

I thought we had talked about a 50/50 cut? Remember?

We actually have no intent on selling it here, if we even sell it. Most people do PM us also.

Please add me also to the list for testing this script...

Thanks (jaume44@hotmail.com)

Originally posted by Chicken
It would be nice if everyone would email/PM directly so the thread doesn't end up being 4 pages of 'add me too' posts. :D

Arrrrrrgh! *bangs head against wall*

Originally posted by UmBillyCord
I thought we had talked about a 50/50 cut? Remember?

We actually have no intent on selling it here, if we even sell it. Most people do PM us also.

Ohhhhh yeah *wink wink*.

Has anyone tested this out?
please email a copy to me also mcu@mindless.com
or ICQ 42071785

Thanks