How can I create backups of my Centova Cast accounts?
Question:
How can I create backups of my Centova Cast accounts for disaster recovery purposes?
Answer:
Centova Cast includes an easy-to-use backup utility that can create backups of each of your client and reseller accounts, optionally in an automated manner suitable for use in a cron job.
To begin, you should make sure that you have enabled the sbin/sumanage utility
by running:
/usr/local/centovacast/sbin/setsumanage on
Enter the administrator password when prompted.
Next, create a script -- say, /root/backup_all_accounts.sh -- containing the
following commands:
#!/bin/sh
# Simple backup script
# Remove old local copies of backups
rm -f /usr/local/centovacast/var/backups/{vhosts,resellers}/*
# Create new backups of all accounts; if you want to include log files in the
# backups, remove the --nologs parameter; if you want to include all of the
# user's media files (MP3s, etc., which will make the backup files huge),
# remove the --nocontent parameter.
/usr/local/centovacast/sbin/sumanage backup --all --nologs --nocontent
# Use rsync to copy the backup files to the path "/path/for/backups/" on the
# remote server "remotehost"; if you don't want to send them to a remote server,
# but instead wish to just copy them to (for example) a different hard drive
# partition on the local server, you could use something like this instead:
# cp -a /usr/local/centovacast/var/backups/ /path/for/backups/
rsync -ae ssh /usr/local/centovacast/var/backups/ remotehost:/path/for/backups/
Finally, make the script executable (i.e., chmod a+x /root/backup_all_accounts.sh)
and create a cron job in /etc/crontab to run /root/backup_all_accounts.sh on a
nightly basis. Note that this script must be executed as root, otherwise the backup
utility will prompt for the administrator password before creating the backups.
For further information about the backup utility, or for instructions for restoring backups created using this utility, refer to the Administrator's manual