# how to backup your server?



## hockey97 (Mar 19, 2012)

Hi, I got *F*reeBSD 8.1 on my server. I config and set up all my servers that includes my mail server. Right now I would like to know how to backup my whole computer/server. 

I have a 500 GB external hard drive already formatted in NTFS. I already previously had issues with it when I tried backing up my server. I guess there were permission issues and at times my external hard drive would disconnect, not unmount, but like stop connecting to the server via USB. Then show some message window saying some kind of error. Then after this fun occurs, where my hard drive then starts acting weird. I would at times get my whole computer/server copied over but then some files would be missing I mean some would be their but when I unmount my external hard drive and then mount it back, there would be some files missing. I also had some files missing due to permission issues. The window would come up saying can't copy file so and so over to external hard drive due to not having proper permissions.

It was a pain in the butt. So I formatted it back to fat32 and then formatted it to ntfs and backed up my website files. This is where I am at and been using the external hard drive at my windows computer. So far no issues.

Just that I wish to backup my whole server that is using freebsd FreeBSD 8.1 which so far never had. One time my dad was stupid and ended up playing with the circuit breaker. Well you guess it. He hit the  the one that shut down my server, well 4 outlets. So my server powered off without shutting down. I had to start it again and let it run that system check.

Is there any true way to backup your servers files? I basically went into nautilus and just dragged and dropped all folders from the root folder. and then transferred them over to my external hard drive.


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## SirDice (Mar 19, 2012)

dump(8)/restore(8) are the standard backup tools. But you can also tar(1) your data and use that as a backup.

I normally only backup a few configuration files and my data. Re-installing the OS is usually quicker than a restore(8).


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## fonz (Mar 20, 2012)

SirDice said:
			
		

> I normally only backup a few configuration files and my data. Re-installing the OS is usually quicker than a restore(8).


My sentiments, exactly. Plus that it gives you the benefit of a freshly installed system, rather than restoring all (if any, of course) accumulated clutter.

It also illustrates the benefit of documenting your administrative procedures. I keep a log of things I've done in /root and document more elaborate (or less trivial) procedures in seperate text files. Keeping copies of important config files is a good idea too.

Fonz


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## anomie (Mar 20, 2012)

SirDice said:
			
		

> dump(8)/restore(8) are the standard backup tools. But you can also tar(1) your data and use that as a backup.



+1 that, but in my case it's significantly faster to restore(8) than to install the OS, install all ports, and get configurations and user data back into place. 

I take a weekly (versioned, going back a few weeks) copy of each of the following, and put it on a remote backup server. 

 /etc/fstab
 bsdlabel(8) (if any) for disks
 complete snapshot dump of each filesystem

I also do this before OS and major Port upgrades, so there's a fixed point in time to roll back to if/when needed. If it is needed, it's a simple as a boot CD and restore(8) over a secure tunnel.


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## hockey97 (Apr 9, 2012)

*How to do a complete system backup?*

Hi, I have FreeBSD 8.1 installed on my server. I need to now back up everything. I have set up my webserver, mail server. I want an easy way to back up everything. So all I have to do is dump this backup to the computer to overwrite everything. Which would get my server back to normal. 

I also would like to install the latest FreeBSD OS version. I think the latest one is 9.0. 

After the backup what should I do and does FreeBSD 9.0 would just upgrade the existing machine? *L*ike it won't delete everything but will overwrite or delete system files and install its own. *L*ike I can install the new OS without doing a clean install? 

I want to upgrade but want to make sure I don't mess up since I have my website files and many important files on the computer. I already backed up the important files on a USB thumb drive. Yet, the server software and config are important too. It took me at least 5 years to get to this point. I need to back up things in a way where it's bulletproof to work. 

*W*hat is the best way*?* Right now I have an external hard drive 500GB that is formatted in fat32 file system format. I notice whenever I mount this hard drive to my server it would always at random times result in an error.  Like when I click on it to open up the directory it would fail giving me an error message and then the hard drive icon would disappear and yet I can tell my USB external hard drive would still be running as if it's still mounted. So then if I disconnect the hard drive from my server it would result in the drive having files corrupted; not all files but a few.


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## hockey97 (Apr 9, 2012)

Could you give me an example of how to use dump? Like what is needed to be typed into the command prompt? 
I read the documentations and do know I need to use dump level 0 to do a full backup of my file system.

I am using a external hard drive USB that has a fat32 file system format. Would this be ok to use?


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## DutchDaemon (Apr 9, 2012)

Please keep this in *one* single topic, thanks.


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