Hi, The more time I spend on my Ubuntu 8.04 LTS + ISPConfig3 server (I only have the one server), the more petrified I become of screwing something up, not being able to clear up the mess and having to start all over again. Can you help me establish some sensible working practices? 1) How do you set up test sites/sandboxes where you can mess about until things work and then efficiently move your work to the 'production' side? 2) What is the best way to take a snapshot of my server so I can 'roll back' to a previous state if I make a screwup? 3) Does it make sense to 'hard link' my config files and php.ini files to a separate folder and make regular backups of this folder? Which files are the crucial ones on a mail/web server? (LAMP, Postfix, Courier) Any other basics I should know on this topic? Appreciate your advice Slowhand
I usually do this with a virtual machine (VMware Server or VirtualBox) in my office. If you use LVM, then I'd use LVM snapshots (see http://www.howtoforge.com/linux_lvm_snapshots ). But there are also other solutions in the "Backup" category.
Falko, Thanks for that. I think I'll stick to good backups as my brain won't stand trying to learn about VM's on top of everything else S
