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how_to:handling_database_backups [2016/06/14 09:31] – [Storing backups across the network] paulhow_to:handling_database_backups [2017/03/24 12:50] – paul
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-======Handling Database Backups====== +[[https://helpdesk.pscs.co.uk/957568-Backups]]
-In VPOP3 versions 3 and later, VPOP3 uses an external Database ([[http://www.postgresql.org|PostgreSQL]]) for storing data, such as message data, logging, configuration details etc. Because of the importance of this information, it is strongly recommended that this data is backed up regularly. +
- +
-By default, every day VPOP3 will backup the database to the VPOP3 installation directory as a file called 'DBBACK-x.DMP', where 'x' is the day number (0=Sunday, 1=Monday, etc). This means that the backups cycle on a weekly basis, so they don't grow indefinitely, and you always have a few backups even in case the latest one fails. +
- +
-=====Changing the backup filenames===== +
-To change the automatic database backup filename, go to the VPOP3 settings, then **Settings -> Database -> Backups**. +
- +
-The ''Dump Command Target File'' option tells VPOP3 where to store the backups, and what to call them. The default is ''DBBack-%w.dmp''. You could change this to "DatabaseBackup.dmp" or whatever you prefer. +
- +
-=====Changing the backup rotation cycle===== +
-The default automatic database backup which VPOP3 performs cycles backup files on a weekly basis. This is performed by saving the backup as a file DBBack-0.dmp on Sunday, DBBack-1.dmp on Monday, etc. The following Sunday, the previous DBBack-0.dmp file is overwritten meaning you have a week's worth of backups available. +
- +
-This rotation is achieved by using 'replacements' in the backup filename. In the default case, the replacement **%w** tells VPOP3 to replace that text with the day of week number (0-6), so each day the backup filename is different. +
- +
-You could have a monthly rotation cycle, by using **%d** instead of **%w**. In this case, the backup filename would have the day of month appended, instead of the day of week. +
- +
-In VPOP3 v6.1 and later, you can also set a specific rotation cycle by using %2, %3 up to %9 to set a 2, 3 to 9 day rotation, etc. +
- +
-Some examples +
-  * DBBACK.DMP - no rotation, each day's backup overwrites the previous day's backup +
-  * DBBACK-%5.DMP - VPOP3 creates 5 backup files called DBBACK-0.DMP to DBBACK-4.DMP, overwriting the backup from 5 days ago +
-  * DBBACK-%d-%h.DMP - VPOP3 creates backups with the day of month and hour (24hr) in the name. This can be useful if you do several backups a day and want to keep a lot of old backups +
-  * DBBACK-%h.DMP - VPOP3 creates a backup with the hour in the name. This can be useful if you do several backups a day, but want VPOP3 to only keep backups from the last 24 hours. +
- +
-=====Storing Database backups elsewhere===== +
-If you want VPOP3 to store the database backups somewhere else, for instance, to stop filling up the installation drive, you can change this simply. Go to the VPOP3 settings, then **Settings -> Database -> Backups**. +
- +
-The ''Dump Command Target File'' option tells VPOP3 where to store the backups, and what to call them. The default is ''DBBack-%w.dmp'' which tells it to store them in the VPOP3 directory, with the specified filename with the '%w' replaced by the week-day number. +
- +
-If you want VPOP3 to store the backups with the same name, but in the ''d:\vpop3backups'' folder, you could set the ''Dump Command Target File'' to  +
-''d:\vpop3backups\DBBack-%w.dmp'' +
- +
-If you want the backups stored on a monthly rotation, you could use ''d:\vpop3backups\dbback-%d.dmp'', etc +
- +
-====Storing backups on a USB drive==== +
-You can easily specify an external (eg USB) hard drive using the above method, simply specify the USB hard drive location as the target file. +
- +
-====Storing backups across the network==== +
-If you want VPOP3 to store the backups across the network (eg on a NAS device), it is a bit more complicated. +
- +
-Because VPOP3 is running as a service, it does not have access to mapped drives, so you cannot map the NAS to drive ''Z:'', and tell VPOP3 to store the backups as ''z:\dbback-%w.dmp''. +
- +
-Instead of using mapped drives, you have to use [[wp>Uniform_Naming_Convention#Uniform_Naming_Convention|UNC]] paths, eg ''\\server\share\path'' +
- +
-Also, because VPOP3 is running as a service, it needs to have permission to access the shared folder. In VPOP3 v6.1 and later you can specify the share account details in the Database -> Backup settings. In earlier versions of VPOP3 you can set VPOP3 to run as a different account which has share permissions (check ALL file permissions in that case), or you could set the sharing permissions to allow the whole VPOP3 computer access to the shares. +
- +
-==keywords== +
-managing backups+
how_to/handling_database_backups.txt · Last modified: 2018/11/14 10:45 by 127.0.0.1

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