Automated Backup

Linux Cron Configuration

Windows Task Scheduler Configuration

The Windows Task Scheduler allows you schedule automated backups and run them at convenient times. The Task Scheduler starts each time Windows is started, and runs as a background process.

To add a scheduled task:

  1. Create a windows batch script to back up the database

  2. Click Start→Control Panel→Scheduled Tasks→Add scheduled Task

  3. Create the task.

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  4. Use the provided python script to dump the database.

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  5. Run the task according to the schedule required.

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  7. At the concluding stage of the scheduled tasks wizard, be sure to check the "Open advanced properties for this task when I click Finish"

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    Edit the command line to read "<path to python>\python dbbackup.py", and click "OK"

Custom backup script

Procedure

  1. Log into the TACTIC server as root

  2. Make a backup of the existing /etc/crontab -the original crontab should look something like this:

    SHELL=/bin/bash PATH=/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin
MAILTO=root
HOME=/

# run-parts
01 * * * * root run-parts /etc/cron.hourly
02 4 * * * root run-parts /etc/cron.daily
22 4 * * 0 root run-parts /etc/cron.weekly
42 4 1 * * root run-parts /etc/cron.monthly

  3. The following line is an example of code that will write the date out to a file and run on the 15th minute of every hour:

    15 * * * * root date > /root/out

    Modify this example code to run in the next few minutes and add it to the crontab. To see if the cron script ran, after the time has passed, verify that the script wrote out the time to the file` /root/out`. The following line is an example of how to backup the TACTIC database every day at 3:45am yum

    45 3 * * * root /usr/bin/pg_dumpall -U postgres > /tmp/my_tactic_db_my_date

    Note

    Be careful as this example will overwrite the backup every day . Another more clever way is the name the file with the date:

    45 3 * * * root /usr/bin/pg_dumpall -U postgres > /root/my_tactic_db_`date +\%Y-\%m-\%0e_\%H:\%m:\%S`

    or

    45 3 * * * root my_date=date +\%Y-\%m-\%0e_\%H:\%M:\%S; /usr/bin/pg_dumpall -U postgres > /tmp/my_tactic_db_${my_date}

    Important

    *From crontab manpage:*The ``sixth'' field (the rest of the line) specifies the command to be run. The entire command portion of the line, up to a newline or % char- acter, will be executed by /bin/sh or by the shell specified in the SHELL variable of the cronfile. Percent-signs (%) in the command, unless escaped with backslash (\), will be changed into newline characters, and all data after the first % will be sent to the command as standard input.