Backing Up a django Web Server

I have a webserver I want to backup weekly and keep 4 weeks of backup history.
The webserver runs CentOS 5.4 and Django.
In the event of a server crash I'd like to be able to recover my website rather easily.  I figure it would be relatively easy to reinstall the OS and install the applications.  Then all I would need to do is restore the configuration files and the database.

Assumptions:
You have django installed and working
$DBDUMPDIR = where ever you want the Database Dump files to go
$BKUPDIR = where ever you want the Backup files to go.  Note:  This backup directory could be a remote server such as an NFS mount or SMB mount.  This is suggested so if this server crashes, your backups would be on another server.
Edit the scripts below to for "your" appropriate directories and file names.



Here are the four files I will need to backup:
*  /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf
*  /etc/httpd/conf/mysite.conf
*  /etc/www/django
*  $DBDUMPDIR/data.json

I created a script called dumpfiles.bash and put it in root's bin directory "/root/bin/dumpfiles.bash".
Make sure that permissions are right to be able to execute the file.
chmod 770 /root/bin/dumpfiles.bash

Here is the script:
----- start of script -----
#!/bin/bash
#
# SCRIPT: dumpfiles.bash
# AUTHOR: Bob
# DATE: 07/01/2010
# REV: 1.blah
#
# PURPOSE: This script is used to backup webserver specific data
#
# set -x # Uncomment to debug this script
#
# set -n # Uncomment to check the script.s syntax
#        # without any execution. Do not forget to
#        # recomment this line!
#
####################
# Define Variables #
####################
# Capture the shell script file name
THIS_SCRIPT=$(basename $0)
#
# Define the start time of the script
STARTTIME=`date +%T`
#
#Set Backup and DB Dump Directories
#Change the directories below to match your environment
BKUPDIR=/mnt/backup/webserver
DBDUMPDIR=/root
#
##################
# Increment Backups #
##################
rm -f $BKUPDIR/bkup4.tar.gz
mv -f $BKUPDIR/bkup3.tar.gz $BKUPDIR/bkup4.tar.gz
mv -f $BKUPDIR/bkup2.tar.gz $BKUPDIR/bkup3.tar.gz
mv -f $BKUPDIR/bkup1.tar.gz $BKUPDIR/bkup2.tar.gz
#
###################
# Dump Database #
###################
# export PYTHONPATH for dumpdata script
export PYTHONPATH='/var/www/django':'/var/www/django/apps'
#
#Change Directories to /var/www/django/mysite
cd /var/www/django/mysite
#
#Backup the DJango database and files to a flat file
python manage.py dumpdata > $DBDUMPDIR/data.json
#
#Get out of the /var/www/django/mysite directory
#Let us go home
cd /root
#
###############################
# Backup and compress important files #
###############################
tar cvfz $BKUPDIR/bkup1.tar.gz /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf /etc/httpd/conf.d/mysite.conf /var/www/django $DBDUMPDIR/data.json
----- end of script -----

I want to schedule a weekly backup so I'll use root's cron to do this.
Edit root's cron (assuming you are logged in as root).

Enter the following line to root's cron.
0 4 * * 1 /root/bin/dumpfiles.bash

This will run the script every Monday morning at 4:00 AM.
Now each time the script runs bkup1.tar.gz will be created.  If it already exists the old files will be incremented up to the number 4 giving you four weeks of backup files.

In the event of a disaster and you rebuilt a new server, you'd untar the backup files and copy the files back to their appropriate place and you the manage.py script to restore the django database.

Hope this helps someone out there.

snmpd Information Filling up the /var/log/messages File

I am using net-snmp on my linux servers so cacti can poll for data and graph statistics.  I noticed that the /var/log/messages file was filling up with snmpd messages.  All of which were merely informational and benign.  I know snmpd works and is configured properly and those log messages in my /var/log/messages file makes it hard to find anything useful in it.

I found that (at least in the version of net-snmp that I am using) debug logging is turned on by default.  Well, I don't want debug level logging.  In fact I don't want any logging for snmpd to go to my /var/log/messages file.

I run Oracle Enterprise Linux and Ubuntu.

On any flavor of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (example:  RHEL, OEL, CentOS) modify the /etc/sysconfig/snmpd.options file.  If it doesn't exist, create it.

The contents of that file should be changed to this:

     # snmpd command line options
     OPTIONS="-Lf /dev/null -p /var/run/snmpd.pid -a"

This will turn off all logging for snmpd.  Remember to restart snmpd for the changes to take affect.
     service snmpd restart

On Ubuntu edit the /etc/init.d/snmpd file and change the line that looks like this:
     SNMPDOPTS='-Lsd -Lf /dev/null -p /var/run/snmpd.pid'
to this
     SNMPDOPTS='-Lf /dev/null -p /var/run/snmpd.pid'

That's it.  Remember to restart snmpd for the changes to take affect
     /etc/init.d/snmpd restart