Server backup via FTP
 

I am trying to set up a windows server 2003 to backup via FTP. Windows doesn't have any built in automated FTP client, so I was looking into using a 3rd party application to handle this. Is this the best approach or how would you suggest that I do this. Should I write a server script to handle this? And if so can you please give me a good reference in order for me to do this myself. Sorry I am new to this side of servers so I would gladly do it myself, I just wanted to make sure I am taking the right approach to it. Thanks.

You should be able to write a pretty easy batch script to do it. FTP is pretty easy to control from the command line.

are there any good resource sites that you would suggest? Sorry I am new to this side of it. On linux I would know where to go but with a windows server I am a little behind.

SyncBack (the freeware versoin, not the "I cost money" version) is a good utility that I use at work. It will allow you to setup directories. You can zip each directory, or whatever selection of directories you are backing up (the zip each directory is nice when you have TONS and TONS of files). You can then copy to a network share or ftp server. Then you can set a schedule for it to run at 3am or whatever.

Again, I use this at work to sync our file shares and cross-backup files from server to server. I then, being paranoid (or smart), burn DVDs of the stuff every so often and get them off site.

Looks neato, but what about registry items?

Don't know of any off the top of my head, but you could write a batch/VBS file to basicly do:

REGEDIT.EXE [ /L:system ¦ /R:user ] /E exportfile "registry_key"

On the exportfile, append the date, run it once a day via the scheduler. Then have a cleanup VBS script to prune files older than x days/weeks/months.

I do some stuff like this on my Windows server that has mysql. I do mysql-dump and append the date. Use the DelOldFiles.VBS script to prune anything older than 7 days.

I can post example VBS scripts if anyone wants them, but I will not be liable if something goes wrong :). I know they work, I use them in production environments, but if someone makes a mistake setting it, it's not my fault, ya know?

You could use Apache Ant. I know it's meant to be a Java (and other) build tool, but you can do quite a bit of different scripting with it. Just another option.

windows has a nice backup utility built right in, set up a shared folder on the server and have your system routinely backup to the folder.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/u..._03july14.mspx

Dilbert,

I personally hate that software.. Ive tried a few times to get it to work properly and when I goto recover, I get files of 0 bytes. But, I prolly did something wrong, I know MS wouldn't blatantly put something THAT buggy out ;).

heh, its not as powerful as professional options, but for basic data backup, it works great for me and my clients.

Windows has a command line FTP tool - I've used it to automate file transfers in the past (long time back). It was a bit of a hassle actually because the parameters differ slightly from UNIX.

I take it that you've looked at it and found it less than satisfactory?

In that case I was invoking the routine from SQL Server. These days I'd probably use the windows scheduler (via "explorer" or "at").

I'm not sure though that this is the right track. Why are you using FTP in the first place? No local backup options? What sort of machine are you FTP'ing to?

I don't mind doing it through command line FTP, I just don't know how to set that up to automatically run at a set time with a set set of values. Like the directory to upload, the FTP server and dir to put it in and all the login info.

There is a local backup, but with the fail being only 200 MB, it is no big deal to be extra safe and put it on a remote server.