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Ask HN: How do you backup your web app/business/startup?

5 points by codegeek 13y ago

I have googled a few including carbonite, sitevault etc. But being lazy and want to hear more from HN'ers. Please share how do/would you backup your website/app/business etc.

wikwocket 13y ago
Make sure to backup all your files, all your database content, installers and config files, and basically anything you'd need to rebuild everything you care about from the bare metal. For websites, a periodic file dump via FTP, and database dump via a MySQL script is nice and easy. There are also Wordpress plugins that will do the dump and email it to you regularly.
rman666 13y ago
I use CrashPlan (http://www.crashplan.com/ http://www.crashplan.com/) for my workstations and am very happy with it.
- wikwocket 13y ago
  Crashplan is excellent, especially if you have lots of data. Most of the other services like Carbonite start to throttle your upload speed after so many GB. Crashplan does not. Crashplan also has a family plan good for several computers, with unlimited storage, and you can even set computers to back up to each other as well as to their repository.
kluivers 13y ago
I use Arq (http://www.haystacksoftware.com/arq/ http://www.haystacksoftware.com/arq/) to backup my data to Amazon Glacier (and S3).
aquark 13y ago
tarsnap (http://www.tarsnap.com/ http://www.tarsnap.com/) handles encrypted database backups, but I've never had to restore. Production database is replicated to two other machines (different data centers) anyway so needing to fall back to a backup would require a huge disaster. But other than that: * everything is in source code control, with clones of the repository in a few places * AMIs for the production machines (copied to multiple AWS regions for redundancy) Only taken every couple of months since they are just a pull & build away from being up to date. * Google/Dropbox for email, documents, etc using TrueCrypt for sensitive stuff I don't really see the need for a full traditional backup process. When I did use one, I never found the time to fully test the restore process frequently so would have to doubt how robust it was anyway!
cdvonstinkpot 13y ago
I use SyncBackPro (1), a Windows app which allows me to create automatic daily & monthly mirrors to Amazon S3, external USB drives & an ftp server provided by my email provider. (1) http://www.2brightsparks.com/syncback/sbpro-features.html http://www.2brightsparks.com/syncback/sbpro-features.html
chaddeshon 13y ago
I use Dropbox, which also makes it easy to switch between the desktop and laptop.
trevelyan 13y ago
cronjob dumping encrypted tar to S3

5 points by codegeek 13y ago

I have googled a few including carbonite, sitevault etc. But being lazy and want to hear more from HN'ers. Please share how do/would you backup your website/app/business etc.

wikwocket 13y ago

Make sure to backup all your files, all your database content, installers and config files, and basically anything you'd need to rebuild everything you care about from the bare metal. For websites, a periodic file dump via FTP, and database dump via a MySQL script is nice and easy. There are also Wordpress plugins that will do the dump and email it to you regularly.

rman666 13y ago

I use CrashPlan (http://www.crashplan.com/ http://www.crashplan.com/) for my workstations and am very happy with it.

wikwocket 13y ago
Crashplan is excellent, especially if you have lots of data. Most of the other services like Carbonite start to throttle your upload speed after so many GB. Crashplan does not. Crashplan also has a family plan good for several computers, with unlimited storage, and you can even set computers to back up to each other as well as to their repository.

kluivers 13y ago

I use Arq (http://www.haystacksoftware.com/arq/ http://www.haystacksoftware.com/arq/) to backup my data to Amazon Glacier (and S3).

aquark 13y ago

tarsnap (http://www.tarsnap.com/ http://www.tarsnap.com/) handles encrypted database backups, but I've never had to restore. Production database is replicated to two other machines (different data centers) anyway so needing to fall back to a backup would require a huge disaster. But other than that: * everything is in source code control, with clones of the repository in a few places * AMIs for the production machines (copied to multiple AWS regions for redundancy) Only taken every couple of months since they are just a pull & build away from being up to date. * Google/Dropbox for email, documents, etc using TrueCrypt for sensitive stuff I don't really see the need for a full traditional backup process. When I did use one, I never found the time to fully test the restore process frequently so would have to doubt how robust it was anyway!

cdvonstinkpot 13y ago

I use SyncBackPro (1), a Windows app which allows me to create automatic daily & monthly mirrors to Amazon S3, external USB drives & an ftp server provided by my email provider. (1) http://www.2brightsparks.com/syncback/sbpro-features.html http://www.2brightsparks.com/syncback/sbpro-features.html

chaddeshon 13y ago

I use Dropbox, which also makes it easy to switch between the desktop and laptop.

trevelyan 13y ago

cronjob dumping encrypted tar to S3