Question
I want to ensure that I have a complete disaster recovery plan in place for my mail server. To that end I want to create a complete backup of all my Gordano files including email, the system setup, profiles, address books, calendar entries, etc.
What is the best method of accomplishing this?
Answer
The items that you want to back up will vary slightly depending on which services you have enabled on your server.
For a full and complete backup covering all the options, please go to the Security > System Recovery page in the GUI and select the option "Schedule saving every" and enter a period in days at which to save the setup.txt. Be sure to also select the options "Include all user files".
This does not back up users mailboxes so the final step is to take a complete backup of the users mailboxes. These are located under the gordanodomainusers directory.
Alternatively, open a command prompt and change to the gordanobin folder. Enter "mail -yA" which will aim to create a full setup.txt. When the cursor returns back to the CMD shell, you know this operation is complete. You will find the setup.txt just created in the directory you are currently in.
In the event of a complete failure of your server you are now well equipped to restore the system to the same position it was in at the time that the last backup was taken.
To restore a system first install a copy of GMS making sure that it is the same version of the software that the backup was created on. Do not install any keys. Copy the saved recovery file in the gordanobin folder. Open a command prompt and change to the gordanobin folder. Type "mail -stop" and press Enter. Type "mail -yrZ" and press Enter.
Please note – From Build 3365 onwards, you can simply specify the “mail -yr” as “mail -yrZ” is no longer used.
Now simply copy your users mailboxes on to the system from a regular tape backup and your system should be restored to the same state it was in at the time of the last backup.
Keywords:backup files disaster recovery recover data