Backups - Summarised

[skk54]

Hi,
I have read (amd re-read) the backup posts in this forum and the how-tos on the wiki, plus had a look at the provided scripts. Here is what I think I know about backups (Scalix CE 10, SuSE 10 OSS)

There are three common reasons to reach for a backup:
1: Server dies (Bare metal restore)
2: Mailbox corruption (individual mailbox restore)
3: Deleted that supermega important email (single email restore)

In the case of 1:
Install the new servers operating system, copy across /var/opt/scalix and use the installer.

In the case of 2:
a) Restore the copy of that persons mailbox made with the omcpoutu to another mailnode, have them log-in and copy the folders/mail across to their account
b) Restore the copy of that persons mailbox to the main mailnode, wiping out their current account, but creating a new one (if you use the restore script on this Forum)

In the case of 3:
Do as 2: a) and let them retrieve the 'important' email themselves.

So, to the point of this post.

I have over 30 Gigabytes of email in the datastore currently (and growing). I cannot stop the scalix server for the 4 or 5 hours it takes the backup script on this forum to run, so I will not have a recent copy of /var/opt/scalix

So please tell me any methods by which I can accommodate 1: and 2: - that is, how can I get/make a list of accounts in a format that can be scripted into a new install for a baremetal restore as in 1: ? How do I integrate the information I have saved from the omcpoutu into the newly restored server -is it sufficient to run the restore script on the main mailnode?

By what combination/method can I backup a users email so that the email can be imported/saved outside the scalix datastore in mbox format for access by any 'ordinary' mail application?

I understand that the CE edition is 'unsupported' except by the generous people contributing to this forum (including the Scalix people) and I thank you all for your efforts. I hope that by asking these questions in one place new users will be able to find the information they need in a single place.
I am also aware that there is the new version 11 which will (probably) answer many of these questions, but I am sure there will be many people like me who will not roll out a new operating system with a new app on a production server, so I expect the version 10 CE to be around for a while yet.

Any input greatly appreciated.

skk54

[Valerion]

I have over 30 Gigabytes of email in the datastore currently (and growing). I cannot stop the scalix server for the 4 or 5 hours it takes the backup script on this forum to run, so I will not have a recent copy of /var/opt/scalix

So please tell me any methods by which I can accommodate 1: and 2: - that is, how can I get/make a list of accounts in a format that can be scripted into a new install for a baremetal restore as in 1: ? How do I integrate the information I have saved from the omcpoutu into the newly restored server -is it sufficient to run the restore script on the main mailnode?

Restoring /var/opt/scalix will also recover all the users. The best way to do this is to use LVM on your machine, omsuspend the server, do a snapshot of the mailstore, "omunsuspend" and backup the snapshot, then delete it afterwards. Of course this may involve completely rebuilding your machine, but backup downtime should be less than 5 minutes.

You can get a full userlist by using omshowu -m all, then get details about each by doing a omshowu -n "User Name" on each user.

Have a look at the following for inspiration (it is old and untested, and may not work properly any more). I will leave the import script as an excercise

Code: Select all

#!/usr/bin/perl

# Copyright: Conversant Systems (Pty) Ltd

$base_dir = "ScalixBackup";
$bin_dir = "/opt/scalix/bin";

mkdir $base_dir;

@all_mailnodes = `$bin_dir/omshowmn -D -f`;

foreach $mailnode (@all_mailnodes) {
        $mailnode =~ s/^\s+//g;
        $mailnode =~ s/\*\*//g;
        $mailnode =~ s/^\s+//g;
        $mailnode =~ s/\s+$//g;
        $mailnode =~ s/\s+/ /g;

        ($mailnode_name,$mailnode_domain) = split (/ /,$mailnode);
        ($ou1,$ou2,$ou3,$ou4) = split (/,/,$mailnode_name);
        $mailnode_fqn = "OU1=".$ou1;
        if ($ou2) {
                $mailnode_fqn = $mailnode_fqn."/OU2=".$ou2;
                if ($ou3) {
                        $mailnode_fqn = $mailnode_fqn."/OU3=".$ou3;
                        if ($ou4) {
                                $mailnode_fqn = $mailnode_fqn."/OU4=".$ou4;
                        }
                }
        }
        $mailnode_dir = $base_dir."/".$mailnode_name;
        mkdir $mailnode_dir;
        @all_users = `$bin_dir/omshowu -m $mailnode_name`;
                foreach $user (@all_users) {
                        $user =~ s/\/[\w\W]+//g;
                        $user =~ s/\s+$//g;
                        if ($user =~ / /) {
                                $has_firstname = "yes";
                                ($firstname,$surname) = split (/ /,$user);
                                $name_fqn="S=".$surname."/G=".$firstname;
                        }
                        else {
                                $has_firstname = "no";
                                $surname = $user;
                                $name_fqn="S=".$surname;
                        }
                        $user =~ s/[\s\_]/./g;
                        $name_file = $mailnode_dir."/".$user;
                        $name_fqn =~ s/_/ /g;
                        $fqn = $name_fqn."/".$mailnode_fqn;
                        $user_details = `$bin_dir/omshowu -n "$fqn" -S`;
                        open OUTFILE, ">".$name_file.",details";
                        print OUTFILE $user_details;
                        close OUTFILE;
                        $file = $name_file.",store";
                        `$bin_dir/omcpoutu -n "$fqn" -f "$file"`
                }
}

By what combination/method can I backup a users email so that the email can be imported/saved outside the scalix datastore in mbox format for access by any 'ordinary' mail application?

The only way I can think of to do this is via a tool like imapsync to a different set of UNIX mailboxes.

[skk54]

Hi,
Thanks for the input. Rebuilding is not an option at this time, so the LVM/snapshot method is not available to me.

In place of that, I think the following would work:
1. In the case of a hardware failure:
a) Rebuild server
b) Re-install scalix
c) Import users via import script
d) Restore users mail from omcpoutu backup files to another mailnode
I am not sure c) is necessary - the restore script on this forum does warn that the user will be deleted prior to restoring, but I guess this would not restore the users extra email addresses or even perhaps their group memberships.

I also think that it may be possible to rsync the /var/opt/scalix directory, and exclude the /var/opt/scalix/data directory, as this is where the email 'lives' - and as I intend to do a omcpoutu each night, keeping 7 copies, an rsync once a week (excluding the data directory) should get the job done....

If I go down this route, I'll post how it works here. (and how long it takes, which is the real issue for me!)

Thanks,
SKK54