Hi,

I am thinking about getting an offsite backup solution.
What I am a bit concerned about is the traffic... Let`s say I do a weekly backup on 40 GB data per server that would make 160 GB of additional outgoing traffic per server each month. It is not really a problem because my DC gives me 1000 in/1000 out but aren`t datacenters getting angry if you really use a lot of traffic... I mean with the outgoing traffic it would be like 500 GB in/160 GB out. Let`s say you have a couple of servers with that much traffic. Won`t it cause them some problems ?

Any experiences on whether you can really use the 1000 to 2000 GB of traffic that most DCs offer today ?

If they offer it (and you use it within any restrictions they might set), they better provide it...

Most DC's will allow you to use it. Just if you go over it overage charges might be quite heavy

Rus

Most DCs should allow it. If you're billed on 95th percentile instead of per GB, be careful about that.

As for your transfer estimates, if you're using Rsync instead of FTP, you can do daily backups of your 40GB server and use less than 10GB of transfer per month easily. Obviously your very first transfer will use more (probably about 20GB with compression).

Most of the data centers (especially the bigger ones, EV1, TP/SM, NAC, etc.) will allow you to use it. They run with the basis that 99% of their customers won't use it all. I know people who have many servers at places like EV1 and use 40-60GB max per server. And I think you'll find that MOST clients won't use more than a quarter of their allowance, meaning the data centers can afford it if that small percentage does use it all, and can afford it even more so when the other small percentage goes over their limit, and they can charge $0.50 - $2.00 per GB, when in relality it's only costing them a couple of cents per GB.

Say... does Rsync just backup the files or does it also backup the Cpanel stuff ? I think it doesn`t backup the Cpanel things...isn't that right ? Or can you like backup all the files on your server and it just transfers new files or something ? Please let me know...

We've had server clients who use up to and beyond their data transfer allocation - It's not really an issue to us or the datacenter, though, as average usage seems to be around 15% of the allocated amount.

We use GNAX for off-site backups and have numerous servers that push 20-30GB each and every single week with no problems.

I use GNAX as well. They are excellent.

Originally posted by thomas.smith
Say... does Rsync just backup the files or does it also backup the Cpanel stuff ? I think it doesn`t backup the Cpanel things...isn't that right ? Or can you like backup all the files on your server and it just transfers new files or something ? Please let me know...

If you back up the whole server, it'll cover the cPanel configuration files as well. Rsync only sends files that have changed. Within files that have changed, it only sends the parts that have. It's much more efficient than using FTP backups.

When your backup service supports NFS, you can also mount your files over the internet to restore a server instantly, rather than having to download the compressed files first.

I like the rsync idea but wouldn't it be difficult to restore a Cpanel account ? I mean first you have to restore the home directory, then the MySQL databases, then mailman mailing lists, log files, configuration files etc. I mean if I have a zip file I can just recover it using WHM but in Rsync I have to do that manually. Is that true or is there any way around this ?

Does Rsync copy ownership and permission settings ? I.e. if the user nobody owns a file on the original server will nobody also own the file on the backup server ? Or will all files be owned by root ?