Learn more about taking a backup in Zimbra with rsync. Our Server Management Support team is here to help you with your questions and concerns.

How to take a Zimbra backup with rsync

Rsync is a popular utility that helps with file synchronization and data backup. We can use it to synchronize files between two different computers or directories. In fact, it is used widely in Zimbra to back up data.

Zimbra is a well-known email and collaboration suite that includes email, calendar, and contact management. The data stored in Zimbra is has to be backed up regularly. This is where rsync comes in handy. In fact, rsync is one of the many methods used for taking Zimbra backups.

According to our experts, we can run the following command to backup Zimbra data:

rsync -avz --exclude=*.pid --exclude=*.lockfile /opt/zimbra/ user@bobserver:/backup/directory/


Here, -a preserves the file permissions, ownership, timestamps, as well as other attributes during the transfer.

Furthermore, -v is used for verbose output. It allows us to see exactly what files are being transferred and whether any errors have been issued.

The -z option compresses the data being transferred. Finally, the –exclude option excludes files with certain extensions that are not required for the backup.

In the above example, the source directory for the backup is /opt/zimbra/, and the destination is a remote backup server specified by user@bobserver:/backup/directory/. As a result, the data will be transferred securely using the SSH protocol.

Additionally, by using rsync, we can easily create incremental backups that transfer only the changes made since the last backup. This reduces the amount of data that needs to be transferred and the time required for the backup process.

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Conclusion

In summary, our Support Techs demonstrated how to take a backup with rsync in Zimbra.