The SME Server supports two methods for data backup. For light-usage sites, end users can use their web browser to select a backup to desktop option; this creates a compressed file of the configuration databases and all user data on the server, and uploads it to the user's desktop via their web browser.
Note: The desktop backup is limited to 2GBytes of data on most operating systems.
For heavier-usage sites, automatic nightly tape backup can be configured.
Third party application writers do not need to make special backup arrangements. All that is required is to ensure that all data files are placed within the standard directories that are backed up. All files and directories within the /home/e-smith/files/ tree are always backed up by all of the SME Server backup mechanisms.
There is a pre-backup event which is signalled before a backup is performed. This can be used to shutdown applications or databases to ensure that a consistent state is backed up. The SME Server automatically performs an ASCII export of all MySQL databases in pre-backup event.
There is a corresponding post-backup event which is signalled after the backup has been performed. This can be used to restart services after the backup.