I'm new to SVN and I'd like to know what methods are available for backing up repositories in a Windows environment?
19 Answers
You could use something like (Linux):
svnadmin dump repositorypath | gzip > backupname.svn.gz
Since Windows does not support GZip it is just:
svnadmin dump repositorypath > backupname.svn
We use svnadmin hotcopy, e.g.:
svnadmin hotcopy C:\svn\repo D:\backups\svn\repo
As per the book:
You can run this command at any time and make a safe copy of the repository, regardless of whether other processes are using the repository.
You can of course ZIP (preferably 7-Zip) the backup copy. IMHO It's the most straightforward of the backup options: in case of disaster there's little to do other than unzip it back into position.
There's a hotbackup.py script available on the Subversion web site that's quite handy for automating backups.
http://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/subversion/trunk/tools/backup/hot-backup.py.in
Here is a Perl script that will:
- Backup the repo
- Copy it to another server via SCP
- Retrieve the backup
- Create a test repository from the backup
- Do a test checkout
- Email you with any errors (via cron)
The script:
my $svn_repo = "/var/svn";
my $bkup_dir = "/home/backup_user/backups";
my $bkup_file = "my_backup-";
my $tmp_dir = "/home/backup_user/tmp";
my $bkup_svr = "my.backup.com";
my $bkup_svr_login = "backup";
$bkup_file = $bkup_file . `date +%Y%m%d-%H%M`;
chomp $bkup_file;
my $youngest = `svnlook youngest $svn_repo`;
chomp $youngest;
my $dump_command = "svnadmin -q dump $svn_repo > $bkup_dir/$bkup_file ";
print "\nDumping Subversion repo $svn_repo to $bkup_file...\n";
print `$dump_command`;
print "Backing up through revision $youngest... \n";
print "\nCompressing dump file...\n";
print `gzip -9 $bkup_dir/$bkup_file\n`;
chomp $bkup_file;
my $zipped_file = $bkup_dir . "/" . $bkup_file . ".gz";
print "\nCreated $zipped_file\n";
print `scp $zipped_file $bkup_svr_login\@$bkup_svr:/home/backup/`;
print "\n$bkup_file.gz transfered to $bkup_svr\n";
#Test Backup
print "\n---------------------------------------\n";
print "Testing Backup";
print "\n---------------------------------------\n";
print "Downloading $bkup_file.gz from $bkup_svr\n";
print `scp $bkup_svr_login\@$bkup_svr:/home/backup/$bkup_file.gz $tmp_dir/`;
print "Unzipping $bkup_file.gz\n";
print `gunzip $tmp_dir/$bkup_file.gz`;
print "Creating test repository\n";
print `svnadmin create $tmp_dir/test_repo`;
print "Loading repository\n";
print `svnadmin -q load $tmp_dir/test_repo < $tmp_dir/$bkup_file`;
print "Checking out repository\n";
print `svn -q co file://$tmp_dir/test_repo $tmp_dir/test_checkout`;
print "Cleaning up\n";
print `rm -f $tmp_dir/$bkup_file`;
print `rm -rf $tmp_dir/test_checkout`;
print `rm -rf $tmp_dir/test_repo`;
Script source and more details about the rational for this type of backup.
I use svnsync, which sets up a remote server as a mirror/slave. We had a server go down two weeks ago, and I was able to switch the slave into primary position quite easily (only had to reset the UUID on the slave repository to the original).
Another benefit is that the sync can be run by a middle-man, rather than as a task on either server. I've had a client to two VPNs sync a repository between them.
svnadmin hotcopy REPOS_PATH NEW_REPOS_PATH
This subcommand makes a full “hot” backup of your repository, including all hooks, configuration files, and, of course, database files.
You can create a repository backup (dump) with
svnadmin dump.You can then import it in using
svnadmin load.
Detailed reference in the SVNBook: "Repository data migration using svnadmin"
I like to just copy the entire repo directory to my backup location. That way, if something happens, you can just copy the directory back and be ready to go immediately.
Just make sure to preserve permissions, if needed. Usually, this is only a concern on Linux machines.
If you are using the FSFS repository format (the default), then you can copy the repository itself to make a backup. With the older BerkleyDB system, the repository is not platform independent and you would generally want to use svnadmin dump.
The svnbook documentation topic for backup recommends the svnadmin hotcopy command, as it will take care of issues like files in use and such.
For hosted repositories you can since svn version 1.7 use svnrdump, which is analogous to svnadmin dump for local repositories. This article provides a nice walk-through, which essentially boils down to:
svnrdump dump /URL/to/remote/repository > myRepository.dump
After you have downloaded the dump file you can import it locally
svnadmin load /path/to/local/repository < myRepository.dump
or upload it to the host of your choice.
as others have said, hot-backup.py from the Subversion team has some nice features over just plain svnadmin hotcopy
I run a scheduled task on a python script that spiders for all my repositories on the machine, and uses hotbackup to keep several days worth of hotcopies (paranoid of corruption) and an svnadmin svndump on a remote machine. Restoration is really easy from that - so far.
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