Re: [webmin-l] Backups for Transferring

[Jamie C. <jca...@we...>]

On 7/Dec/2006 14:26 John Hinton wrote ..
> Jamie Cameron wrote:
> > On 7/Dec/2006 13:01 John Hinton wrote ..
> >   
> >> Jamie,
> >>
> >> So far I've been really successful with doing backups using the backup
> >> function built into Virtualmin. I use this for moving accounts from
> one
> >> server to another, for instance at the point where an old box is being
> >> retired or whatever.
> >>
> >> For me, on CentOS, this leaves a couple of items which need to be done
> >> by hand... outside of Virtualmin control. One, is our default 
> >> installation of SquirrelMail. Address books and other user customized
> >> functions get left behind. Also, the same for Usermin. Some things like
> >> for instance scheduled emails are left on the old server.
> >>
> >> It would be nice to be able to catch these couple of items in the backup
> >> and perhaps something else depending on what other folks might be using.
> >>
> >> Do you have any ideas about how these types of things might be included
> >> into that backup system? What you have already created is SO wonderful
> >> for this type of maintenance... getting the offbeat items like mysql
> DBs
> >> as well as the all the email settings... it really is sweet and such
> a
> >> huge timesaver.
> >>     
> >
> > I think the proper solution would be to update Virtualmin to include
> > all that missing data. For scheduled emails, I need to include mailbox
> users'
> > cron jobs, which isn't too hard. For squirrelmail I'm not sure ... do
> you
> > know where on the filesystem they get saved?
> >
> >  - Jamie
> >   
> /var/lib/squirrelmail/prefs
> 
> For any particular user, in that directory there are:
> 
> <username>.pref
> <username>.abook
> <username>.sig (if a signature file has been created)
> 
> files. That's all I see on my system, but there might be more depending
> on other modules. <username>.* should get all files for any particular
> user.
> 
> is the default path on RHEL systems.

Yeah, that isn't going to be included in the Virtualmin backup
any time soon. If you were running Squirrelmail installed into
a virtual server's directory then it would be backed up, but
programs that store their data elsewhere are tough to handle..
 
> As for the scheduled emails...
> 
> I don't allow my users access to most of Usermin, only a few minor 
> functions.. most of mail, mysql, disk quotas and Sys Docs. I must admit
> that I haven't used very much within Usermin and don't know offhand if
> more 'customization' is available in other modules within that interface
> but I suspect there are. I wonder if perhaps even the Usermin data in 
> the Usermin directory should be considered if you are thinking of adding
> this type of function?

Usermin generally stores everything in users' ~/.usermin directories,
which will get included in Virtualmin backups. These cron jobs for
scheduled emails were an exception, but that is the only one I
can think of..

> Some global thinking might be in order here, at least for sure with 
> regards to Usermin. As for Squirrelmail.. well, I would frankly 
> understand if you just turned your nose up at that request as it is so
> far removed from Virtualmin and what you do. Also, due the the number of
> other Webmail interfaces available on the varying OSs. But it sure would
> be nice.

For arbitrary files like this, I would recommend just using the Filesystem
Backup module. Virtualmin backups are generally on a per-domain basis, and
a global Squirrelmail config doesn't fit into any domain.

 - Jamie