restoring from backup individual messages/folders

[Earl Shannon]

Hello,

This is practically verbatim what we do at NCSU.
We create a folder named BACKUP in their regular inbox and then
restore their account from the requested date to that folder.
Subscriptions need to be updated and quotas set for the
BACKUP folder. We then delete it after two weeks. :)
We do limit the number of restoration attempts to find something
though, to two. We also only keep four weeks of data on tape.

We use Veritas with a tape library for the backups. Worlds away
better than what we were doing with ufsdump/ufsrestore.

The idea of not actually deleting a message when a user flags it
to go away has other implications besides easy restoration.
How does that affect user quota, for example? File space usage
for the machine in general, ie, how much data should you keep?
Measure that in terms of time or space, or some mix of the two?
Satisfactory answers to these questions would probably require
a substantion redesign of the IMAP server software.

Regards,
Earl Shannon
-- 
Systems Programmer, Computing Services, Information Technology
NC State University.
http://www.earl.ncsu.edu

Dave McMurtrie wrote:
> 
> On Thu, 2 Jan 2003, Hein Roehrig wrote:
> 
> > I would be interested in what kind of services&strategies admins here
> > offer to users regarding restoring accidentally deleted (&expunged)
> > messages.
> >
> > In particular, while it is relatively safe to backup a running Cyrus
> > and in the case of desaster reconstruct all mailboxes, stopping Cyrus
> > for reconstructing a single mailbox seems unacceptable.
> 
> I'd prefer it if we only did disaster recovery restores here (if we delete
> your data, we'll get if back -- if you delete it, tough rocks) but that's
> not the case.
> 
> When a user requests a restore, we create (via IMAP protocol) a subfolder
> in their INBOX and give it a separate quota root.  This subfolder will
> contain their restored INBOX and all restored subfolders.  The mail files
> are copied into the filesystem and then the restore folders are
> reconstructed (which doesn't require us to stop cyrus).  The user is then
> free to browse through their restore subfolders and copy any messages they
> need.  After 14 days, their entire restore hierarchy is deleted.
> 
> Even though this whole process is automated, it's still a pain.
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Dave
> --
> Dave McMurtrie, Systems Programmer
> University of Pittsburgh
> Computing Services and Systems Development,
> Development Services -- UNIX and VMS Services
> 717P Cathedral of Learning
> (412)-624-6413

-- 
Systems Programmer, Computing Services, Information Technology
NC State University.
http://www.earl.ncsu.edu