Easiest way to backup SVN repositories?

[scotrod <sc...@gmail.com>]

Hello,

I was advised to seek some kind of help/support from this group:
TortoiseSVN - Google Groups <https://groups.google.com/u/2/g/tortoisesvn>

I'm sorry if this is not the purpose of this email list.

I wanted to ask which is the fastest and painless way to backup a SVN repos
without stopping the service.
I've heard that people on the Internet do it using rsync, but I am not
familiar yet with using this tool.

Thank you :)

Re: Easiest way to backup SVN repositories?

[Bo Berglund <bo...@gmail.com>]

On Tue, 20 Apr 2021 19:08:35 +0200, Andreas Stieger <An...@gmx.de>
wrote:

>Hello,
>
>On 4/20/21 6:48 PM, scotrod wrote:
>> I wanted to ask which is the fastest and painless way to backup a SVN
>> repos without stopping the service.
>> I've heard that people on the Internet do it using rsync, but I am not
>> familiar yet with using this tool.
>
>
>Rsync is only suitable if you take specific extra measures on the
>repository (locking, hotcopy)
>
>Start reading here:
>http://svnbook.red-bean.com/nightly/en/svn.reposadmin.maint.html#svn.reposadmin.maint.backup
>
>Also note (as a general statement) that an rsync copy is just a copy,
>not a backup. A backup is something where you can not only restore one
>snapshot but all past states. Also something that is tested to work in
>the reverse.
>
Here is my SVN backup experience:

We went from CVSNT to SVN back in 2017 and at the time I had to evaluate the
backup/security issues with the repository. THe CVSNT server is completely file
based so it could be backed up on a file system base.
Not so with SVN, which is database based...

Since our CVS server was partitioned in several different CVSROOT trees I had to
migrate these as such using scripts available on the Internet.
So I wound up with a SVN system with basically the same layout as on CVS as a
client/server versioning system (note: I also evaluated GIT but that was too
different to be able to import our CVS data into).

Next I had to figure out the backup method and quickly got caught by what
Andreas mentioned and the linked document outlines too...

After a process I finally wound up with an svnsync approach with nightly syncs
against a full mirror of the SVN main repository server content.
The main server runs on Windows (VisualSVN) and the backup server runs on Ubuntu
Server in a completely different location (we are safe from catastrophes like
fire, flooding etc this way).

After the initial setup, which uses svn dump files to import the exact same data
into the remote server, I have a nightly task on the main server to sync the
backup server with data changes from the last day and this is run over the
Internet.

This has worked extremely well now for 4 straight years!


-- 
Bo Berglund
Developer in Sweden

Re: Easiest way to backup SVN repositories?

[Andreas Stieger <An...@gmx.de>]

Hello,

On 4/20/21 6:48 PM, scotrod wrote:
> I wanted to ask which is the fastest and painless way to backup a SVN
> repos without stopping the service.
> I've heard that people on the Internet do it using rsync, but I am not
> familiar yet with using this tool.


Rsync is only suitable if you take specific extra measures on the
repository (locking, hotcopy)

Start reading here:
http://svnbook.red-bean.com/nightly/en/svn.reposadmin.maint.html#svn.reposadmin.maint.backup

Also note (as a general statement) that an rsync copy is just a copy,
not a backup. A backup is something where you can not only restore one
snapshot but all past states. Also something that is tested to work in
the reverse.

Andreas