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Backups / Restoring
Retrieving File Backups
As an We-Host Virtual Server Administrator, you have the luxury of restoring files directly from the primary and secondary backups (on disk - No-Charge) as well as requesting file retrieval from the tertiary backups (on tape - Service Fee). The We-Host servers have a file retrieval program titled "getback" which will walk you through the file retrieval process step by step.

To restore a file from backup, Telnet or SSH to your Virtual Server, and then run the command "getback filename(s)". The filename(s) represent a single file or list of files which you are interested in restoring from backup. The getback will search the backup archives, find all matches, and display them to you. You can then select the desired backup and commence its restoration.

Warning: By choosing to have us restore a backup from tape you will incurr a non-refundable $125.00 charge. Please read details on this file restore process carfully before choosing to restore a backup from tape.

For example, if you are interested in reviewing all backups that have been made on the the file "~/www/htdocs/index.html", you would simply type:

If you are interested in reviewing all backups made on multiple files, you would simply type:

    % getback file1 file2

For example, you can look at the backup copies of the mailboxes located on your Virtual Server

You can also look at backup copies of entire directories -- for example,

When the getback program is run, a date-sorted list is presented of possible sources to restore the file(s) from. The online (primary and secondary) backup sources as well as all of the tape backup sources are all listed. If an online source is selected, the file(s) are restored immediately. Any existing file(s) under the same name will be moved to a different filename with the form of filename.DDMonYY. Where DDMonYY is the current date.

If a tape backup is selected, an e-mail message is automatically sent to the Support Staff requesting the backup be restored from tape (which usually takes up to 2 business days). Where restoring the file from an online copy (on disk) is provided free of charge, restoring file(s) from tape backup is subject to a tape retrieval fee (Currently $125 per occurrence). Once a backup is restored from tape, no refund will be issued, even if you have chosen the wrong selection for restore.  Please be careful when choosing which version you would like restored.

About the Backup from a We-Host Server

The Primary Backup: The primary backup is made to a separate drive on the same machine. This backup is not compressed and is roughly 0-24 hours old. You can access this using the getback retrieval utility or by simply changing your current working directory to "/backup/home/[login name]".

The Secondary Backup: The secondary backup is a compressed tar archive of the primary backup (just before it is overwritten). Therefore, the secondary backup can be anywhere from 24-48 hours old. The secondary backup is stored to a third disk (the system volume). It is important to store backups on separate disk spindles in case of drive failure.

The Tertiary Backup: The tertiary backup is made to our Exabyte Mammonth 10-tape changer. The backups for We-Host servers hold 5 magazines of tapes (for a total of 50 tapes). Each magazine has the capacity of holding 2 complete backups of all of our servers. Therefore, it is possible that the tape backup system holds anywhere from 1-10 copies of your data (depending upon how long your account has been with us) -- the multiple tape backup copies typically span in age from 2 days (the latest) to 2 months (the oldest).

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Last Updated: 11 June, 2000  · Email support web site errors to webmaster@we-host.com

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