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Using Rsync to copy database backups from a remote server


16 Oct 2012 | , ,

I create daily backups of this blog's database, but since they are stored on the same server as my application, they won't be much good if the whole server dies.

I wrote a small script to rsync my database backups onto my MacBook Air, which gets routinely backed up onto an external hard drive with Time Machine.

Create script to rsync backup directory

$ vi ~/scripts/rsync-livetocode-backups
#!/bin/bash
rsync -rv shevaun@livetocode:/var/backups/postgres ~/backups/livetocode

Make the script executable

$ chmod +x ~/scripts/rsync-livetocode-backups

Write cron task to run the script daily

$ crontab -e
# m  h  dom mon dow user command
0 12  *   *   *  * ~/scripts/rsync-livetocode-backups

View the cron task to make sure it saved correctly

$ crontab -l