Oh Great Lords of the Forum I Require your Assistance

[laughingbuddha]

Oh great ones, I wish to partake of your knowledge and wisdom.

Ok, cheesey opening done with, I need some help and advice please. I'm not a linux ninja, so please be gentle when bestowing instructions.

First question. Is it safe to upgrade a production server to Plesk 9.0. I've only got the one box at present, and it's still running pre-Plesk 9 (version 8.6 I think) as well as the ASL service. I've held off the upgrade because of the early issues, but is it safe to do the upgrade now, or should I just stick to 8.6?

Second question. 2 years down the line an I've neglected to put in some level of back-up into my server. Time and knowledge has basically prevented me from doing so, but I know it needs to be done. I currently run a RAID 0 configuration, so there is one drive acting as a redundant to the other, plus for the sites I develop I keep a current copy on my system at the office, but I could do with some kind of offsite back-up for user data, MySQL database(s) and web space content. I'm no Linux guru, and not 100% sure what to do to solve this issue. But I guess whatever I do, I need to be able to restore the back to another dedicated server or VPS if mine fails. What do you guys suggest?

Thanks again peeps.

Matt

[breun]

I currently run a RAID 0 configuration, so there is one drive acting as a redundant to the other,

I hope you mean RAID 1. Or you don't have any redundancy, but twice the chance of failure.

plus for the sites I develop I keep a current copy on my system at the office, but I could do with some kind of offsite back-up for user data, MySQL database(s) and web space content. I'm no Linux guru, and not 100% sure what to do to solve this issue. But I guess whatever I do, I need to be able to restore the back to another dedicated server or VPS if mine fails. What do you guys suggest?

You could use Plesk's backup tools. We don't use those: we have built our own remote backup solution with a web interface which also keeps history and lets you download or restore specific files/folders. We offer this service for a monthly fee or we could setup a backup system on one of your servers and maintain that for you.

[faris]

If you want simple, automated and gui, then a combination of 4PSA's Total Backup and some form of off-site storage (that supports either FTP or ssh) is a good solution. We do this on one particular system.

But at the end of the day all Total Backup really does is back up most of the filesystem, which rsync can do just as well, if not better, and can connect to an offsite backup via ssh.

[laughingbuddha]

@breun doh! I did mean RAID 1, RAID 0 is striped. The HP server actualy uses a strange version of RAID 5+1, it is strickly RAID 1 but also takes a part of each drive for something else. Odd I know, but it is the only option it gave.

What would be the best option in back up. Recovery is also something that needs to be address. How easy is it to recover from a failure using the various choices and implementing the recovered files quickly on another server. Cost is a factor, as my server currently only holds 30+ domains and is used as a development platform.

Thanks,

Matt