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I've installed Collabnet Subversion Edge, and would like to make sure I have it backed up properly. I would like NOT to use the CloudBackup service offered.

I've went to the administration interface for collabnet (localhost:3343) and went to Repositories > Backup Schedule. There, one can choose between 3 different 'Type of Job':

  • Cloud Services Backup
  • Full Dump Backup
  • Hotcopy Backup

Neither lets you choose where to copy the backup. I've tried looking up how this works, but documentation seems to be lacking a lot.

What is the best way to backup such a repository? Shall I just keep a copy of the entire collabnet folder (c:\csvn)?

Álvaro González
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Karl Cassar
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4 Answers4

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The Subversion Edge admin UI lets you specify the folder for backups. It defaults to a folder inside the normal data folder, but you can specify a different value. So, for example, if you have a D:\ drive that you want the backups to go on you can just specify that folder in the settings and the backups will go to that folder.

It does need to be a physically accessible hard drive though.

See the Backup Directory configuration item in this screenshot:

https://ctf.open.collab.net/sf/projects/svnedge/screenshots/screens/config/config.png

Change Backup Path

Iman Mahmoudinasab
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Mark Phippard
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  • Thanks for this, this seems more on the right track. However, I've checked the folder specified here, and it was currently empty. I had a daily backup (Type: Hot copy backup), which should be done at 3:00am. Any ideas why this is still empty and there is nothing in this folder? I've tried switching it to 'Full Dump Backup' now, to see if it does any difference. – Karl Cassar Dec 09 '13 at 15:11
  • The folder should contain one folder for each repository with the backups for that repository inside that folder. Make certain you have configured the mail server settings and set the email address for the admin account so that you get emails when jobs fail. – Mark Phippard Dec 09 '13 at 15:57
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You can use Windows Server Backup to backup Subversion repositories. It allows you to shedule backups to a network share, dedicated backup volume, writeable media. For example, wbadmin command-line tool allows you to safely backup your repositories. This simple command performs one-time copy backup of C:\foo\bar to X:\ volume:

wbadmin start backup –backupTarget:x: -include:c\foo\bar -vsscopy

(To install Windows Server Backup, run ocsetup WindowsServerBackup in elevated command-prompt).

You can setup backup in different ways:

It's not required to stop server's service when you run the backup because FSFS repository backend is always in consistent state.

Here are general tips about recovering Subversion repository from a backup:

  1. Recover repository backup to an empty directory to make sure that restored repository files won't mix with files of the broken one. After repository if recovered, you can delete broken repository and then replace it with the recovered one.

  2. Stop-start cycle your Subversion server after recovering repository from a backup.

  3. If your clients get errors after repository recover, run svnadmin recover against it. The command finishes instantly and makes repository accessible again.

bahrep
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  • So if I just backup periodically the whole c:\csvn directory, I should be able to recover from it should the drive go bust? Basically it seems that the Collabnet Edge Subversion uses a different mode of authentication for users rather than the `authz` and `passwd` files as the normal subversion server uses. I'll try to re-install subversion on a different computer and see if I could manage to restore from a full directory copy. – Karl Cassar Nov 01 '13 at 14:38
  • I've tested this out and it works - Basically I did a full copy of the C:\csvn directory which is the default directory where Collabnet Subversion installs. Then, I installed Collabnet Subversion again on a different PC, also installing it to the default directory. Then once installed, I stopped the services, and copied over the entire c:\csvn from the backup over to the folder, replacing any files. I then started the services, and the repository was working fine including users & passwords. – Karl Cassar Nov 01 '13 at 15:02
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If you have access to the repository directories then you should be able to use hotcopy directly and specify where the backups go.

randy-wandisco
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0

It's enough to take a periodical backup of just csvn/data directory where all your repositories and configuration files are stored.

Visit this link for backup (and upgrade) options. The contents in the link is added below. Hope it helps.

Manual Upgrade/Reinstallation Steps

Subversion Edge includes an integrated mechanism for installing updates. This is the preferred way to do an upgrade as it handles whatever steps are needed to perform the upgrade and can be done remotely from your web browser. However, there are scenarios where you might want or need to do an upgrade manually, for example your Subversion Edge server might not be able to access the Internet to pull down the updates or maybe one or more critical installation files have become corrupted and you need to reinstall using the same version. Here are the steps for performing a manual upgrade or reinstallation:

Windows

If your existing Subversion Edge installation was installed using the installer from Subversion Edge 2.0.0 or later, then all you need to do to upgrade is download the latest installer and run it. This will uninstall the current version and install the new version (which is how the Windows Installer (.msi) process works for upgrades). If you are not sure what version you installed with, you can always safely use this approach:

  • Stop the existing services and uninstall the current version from the Windows Control Panel. This will leave behind your C:\csvn folder and any files in it that have been modified since the original install.
  • Delete everything in the C:\csvn folder EXCEPT the data folder. So you should be left with just the C:\csvn\data folder.
  • Install the new version. The installer will pick up the existing data folder and when the services start it will basically just be an upgrade to the new version.

WARNING: Take note of this reported bug and backup the svn_access_file first: artf7081 - Using Windows installer for updates can overwrite the svn_access_file

Linux/Solaris

To upgrade a Linux/Solaris installation, this is the safest way to do it:

  1. Stop the servers $ bin/csvn stop $ bin/csvn-httpd stop
  2. Rename the csvn folder $ mv csvn csvn-old
  3. Untar the new release as a non-root user
  4. Move the data folder back into the new release $ mv csvn-old/data csvn
  5. Important! Copy "dist" configuration files to data folder $ cp -f csvn/dist/*.dist csvn/data/conf
  6. Start the servers $ bin/csvn start $ bin/csvn-httpd start
Jeyanthan I
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