Server Backup

[Giuseppe Ravasio (LU)]

Hi,
I'm rewriting my backup script and I cannot find any hint about how to
backup the cyrus server in a good way.

Actually I'm using this method:

- Stop Postfix and Cyrus
- making tar of /var/lib/sieve
- making tar of /var/lib/imap
- dumping mailboxes.db in plain text (ctl_mboxlist -d)
- taking snapshots of all the mailstores
- Restarting the Services
- taking mailstore backups from the snapshots

The last night the imaps was not restarted because the socket for IMAPS
was busy and so I was wondering if today it's really needed to stop the
service before taking the snapshots.
Avoiding the service stop could also be useful in order to stop having a
1/2min downtime (I also take vmware snapshots of the machine)

I was thinking to move in this direction:

- Checkpoint and archive the databases (with ctl_cyrusdb -r)
- making tar of /var/lib/imap
- making tar of /var/lib/sieve
- dumping mailboxes.db in plain text (ctl_mboxlist -d)
- taking snapshots of all the mailstores
- taking mailstore backups from the snapshots

What kind of backup strategy are you using?
Thanks
Giuseppe