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Backups FAQ
Backups, they never seem important until you lose data. We take backups seriously at High Speed Rails and so should you. Here are some important questions and answers on this critical issue.
- Do you backup my hosting account regularly?
Yes we do. We backup all accounts daily by default. - What procedure do you use for the backups?
We use rsync to backup incremental copies of your data to a separate server on location. We backup not only your hosting account but also the SQL servers and your email accounts. We currently use the -a and --delete flags. Please see man rsync for more information on what those flags mean. At this time we do not back up files larger than 2GB. - How many copies of my data do you keep?
Please note that at this time we only keep one copy of your data, the backup from yesterday. We may soon be able to keep multiple copies of your data. When this happens we will post to the HSR weblog. - What files, directories or patterns do you exclude from backups?
The default rsync exclude list is as follows:
httpd-access.log.*
*.core
*.log
event.log
Z2.log
Data.fs.*
zopectlsock
dead.letter
/usr/local/www/proxy/
*zexp*
*.tar.gz
*.tgz
*.gz
*.zip
*Data.fs.tmp
*Data.fs.old
*Data.fs.lock
Data_*.fs
*.bak
*.tar
/usr/local/www/awstats/
Z2.lock
Z2.pid
- What files, directories or patterns do you include in backups?
The default rsync include list is as follows (simplified):
/root/**
/usr/home/**
/usr/local/etc/**
/usr/local/pgsql/**
/usr/local/www/**
/usr/local/scripts/**
/usr/local/zope/**
/usr/local/squid/iredir/**
/usr/local/mailman/**
/var/db/mysql/**
/var/db/pkg/**
/var/log/usage/**
/var/cron/**
/etc/**
/service/**
- Can changes be made to the exclude and include lists?
Yes. Please email support with your requests. - Do you guarantee that I will never lose any data that I have hosted with you?
We could make this guarantee to gain your confidence but its hard to predict what problems might arise. We can guarantee however that we are always working hard and regularly to make sure that your data is safe. - What should I be doing to make sure my data is safe?
You should also be doing your own backups of your important data, on at least a weekly basis.
