Configure your vqSA for automatic backups

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Question: How can I configure periodic backups of my vqSA? What is backed up?

Answer: We can do this for you. Data can be backed up weekly to your site or ours.
Alternatively, you may image drive(s) on a separate PC. This is discussed at the very bottom.

If data is stored on site or at your own data center, there is no monthly fee for regular backups. If you wish to backup data to our secure top-tier, Level-2 data center, there is a very small monthly fee. In either case, we charge a 1-time fee for configuring the service. This covers the cost of working with your IP staff to ensure interoperation of certificates, folders and file permissions. It also covers the cost of testing the data archival and recovery process.

If you provide your own storage space, you must provide us wit a Linux share folder for the backup data.

Backups occur during the night and rarely impact performance. The backup folder needn't be local, but if you pay for bandwidth out of your data center, you may wish to allocate space on the local network. Any pipe of 100MB or faster will support the backup activity.

We use SCP (Secure copy over SSH, not FTP). At the time of this writing, the vqSA backup process is weekly - during the night. To configure your vqSA for backups, we need the following information. Post this data to a a support ticket

• Location of linux share folder
  
• User ID
  
• Password
  
• Outside access to port 22*

These things are backed up (we do not back up challenged mail - it is mostly spam):

• User databases
  
• LDAP

* Clients configured for backup must open port 22 to the outside world. This is required for ongoing diagnostics and quick assistance during emergencies and any unforseen event. This access does not present a high risk, because root access is disabled and the visitor must present a valid account and password.

Alternate Backup Method
Occasionally, clients ask us if they can image an entire drive. The answer is "Yes".

• To power down the vqSA properly, click Admin » Restart/Shut Down » Shut Down.
  
• Remove the drive(s). On 2 drive systems, you must image both drives unless they are used in RAID 1 configuration. In this case, they are identical and you may even return to using the appliance while the drive is imaged on another PC.
  
• It is best to use an O/S independent process. If the process is dependent on the OS, then contact Vanquish to determine your OS.

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Question This inquiry arrived from Scot Henry of United Way/Milwaukee

Vanquish Labs offers to backup our appliance if I open SSH on the firewall, but I am considering options such as a Linux backup agent (for our Backup Exec software)and disk imaging products. In the unusual case of a hardware failure where the appliance was replaced, would a full restore from Backup Exec or disk image likely work, or would there likely be incompatibilities (such as with the device drivers)?

Answer

Hello Scott. After looking at the hosting plan, I will respond with a few minimum requirements & notes:

• The Personal Basic plan is not sufficient
  
• Plan must include dedicated IP (extra $ -OR- business special and up plans). [comparison of westhost plans]
  
• Setup a domain or subdomain and DNS for your hosting
  
• Setup the hosting and provide us with SSH ip & domain, login & password and the directory for ssh/scp backup files.
  
• Monitor hosting for space allocation (they might have pre-allocation for mail and web separately) and removing old backup files as it will go over the limit without it.
  
• Notify Vanquish whenever password or login info changes.
  
• Of course, if your hosting service is offline for any reason, the backup will fail.

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Question: [from Phil Lind, IT Director, Linn County Oregon]
Do I need a dedicated IP address for you to access that server, or would a domain name work? Also, how should I go forward? - Set up the account with WestHost.com first, then order setup of a backup with you and have you contact them?

Answer:
You need an IP address and a domain. It needn't be a dedicated IP address, as long as it maps to the domain. Many standard hosting accounts will do fine.

We need the following information:

• Domain name (Eg: linn.whsites.net )
  
• Username: (Eg: linncounty)
  
• Password: XXXXXXXX
  
• IP address: xx.xxx.xxx.xx

The hosted server must support a Linux share folder (SSH with SCP transfer) and provide a folder for permissions.

The host must support the exchange of keys for SSL and share login (not just password login). In the past, WestHost occasionally placed the keys in the customers home folder. We couldn't qualify their configuration until they moved the key to the server root folder. (This is easily done according to Mark Amos, a WestHost tech support rep).