Active Record YAML Backup Solution - Drop in rake task and config file to backup db and directorys of your choice (user uploaded files) (See related posts)

EZ drop in backup rake task for your rails projects - works well - 5 - 10 min set up, one rake file and one config file
backs up db and any directory's to any number of servers with rsync


BSD License or whatever, but it would be cool if you told me your using it
2007 ISS http://industrialstrengthinc.com

this is a sample config file and a rake task you can drop into any rails project to do backups, easy to automate.
Backs up your specified environment db to activerecord yml files (one per table) and zips them up in a human readable timestamped file
syncs that and any other set of arbitrary directory's to any number of arbitrary servers with rsync
be sure to set ssh key based logins
to run: rake backup
also: rake backup:db, rake backup:restoredb (promts for a file created by backup:db), rake backup:push (to push out what u got)
note: this uses something like 30 lines of code from some blog site I got it from that I cant recall, yay for that guy, thanks

## example crontab entry:

3 * * * * cd /rails_deployment_dir/current && nice rake backup RAILS_ENV=production >> /rails_deployment_dir/production_backup_system.log

## config file - goes in config/backup.yml

production: 
  dirs: 
   - db/backups
   - public/uploaded_images
  servers: 
    -  name: backup server number 1
       host: gridserver.com
       port: 22
       user: blah@whatever.com
       dir: /home/blah/backups
    -  name: backup server two
       host: kradradio.com
       port: 22
       user: kraduser
       dir: /home/kraduser/backups_from_my_rails_proj


development: 
  dirs: 
   - db/backups
   - public/uploaded_images
  servers: 
    -  name: local self
       host: localhost
       port: 5222
       user: oneman
       dir: /home/oneman/Documents/development_backup


## rake file lib/tasks/backup.rake

desc "Backup Everything Specified in config/backup.yml"
task :backup => [ "backup:db",  "backup:push"]

namespace :backup do
 
    RAILS_APPDIR = RAILS_ROOT.sub("/config/..","")
    
   def interesting_tables
     ActiveRecord::Base.connection.tables.sort.reject! do |tbl|
       ['schema_info', 'sessions', 'public_exceptions'].include?(tbl)
     end
   end
  
   desc "Push backup to remote server"
   task :push  => [:environment] do 
      FileUtils.chdir(RAILS_APPDIR)
      backup_config = YAML::load( File.open( 'config/backup.yml' ) )[RAILS_ENV]
      for server in backup_config["servers"]
       puts "Backing up #{RAILS_ENV} directorys #{backup_config['dirs'].join(', ')} to #{server['name']}"
       puts "Time is " + Time.now.rfc2822 + "\n\n"
         for dir in backup_config["dirs"]
          local_dir = RAILS_APPDIR + "/" + dir + "/"
          remote_dir = server['dir'] + "/" + dir.split("/").last + "/"
          puts "Syncing #{local_dir} to #{server['host']}#{remote_dir}"
          sh "/usr/bin/rsync -avz -e 'ssh -p#{server['port']} ' #{local_dir} #{server['user']}@#{server['host']}:#{remote_dir}"
         end
       puts "Completed backup to #{server['name']}\n\n"
      end
   end

    task :storedb => :environment do 

      backupdir = RAILS_APPDIR + '/db/backup'
      FileUtils.mkdir_p(backupdir)
      FileUtils.chdir(backupdir)
      puts "Dumping database to activerecord yaml files in #{backupdir}"
      interesting_tables.each do |tbl|

        klass = tbl.classify.constantize
        puts "Writing #{tbl}..."
        File.open("#{tbl}.yml", 'w+') { |f| YAML.dump klass.find(:all).collect(&:attributes), f }      
      end
      puts "Database Dumped.\n\n"
    end

    desc "Dump Current Environment Db to file"    
    task :db => [:environment, :storedb ] do
      backupdir = RAILS_APPDIR + '/db/backup'
      archivedir = RAILS_APPDIR + '/db/backups'
      backup_filename = "#{RAILS_ENV}_db_backup_#{Time.now.strftime("%B.%d.%Y_at_%I.%M.%S%p_%Z")}.tar.bz2"
      FileUtils.mkdir_p(archivedir)
      puts "Archiving #{backupdir} yaml files to #{backup_filename}\n\n"
      `tar -C #{backupdir} -cjf #{backup_filename} *`
      `mv #{backup_filename} #{archivedir}`
    end

    desc "Restore Current Environment Db from a file"    
    task :restoredb => [:environment] do 
        backupdir = RAILS_APPDIR + '/db/backup'
        archivedir = RAILS_APPDIR + '/db/backups'
        print "Input a file to load into the db: #{archivedir}/"
        backup_filename = STDIN.gets.chomp
        puts "Loading backup file: #{backup_filename}"
        FileUtils.chdir(archivedir)
        `tar -xjf #{backup_filename}`
        `mv *.yml #{backupdir}`
        FileUtils.mkdir_p(backupdir)
        FileUtils.chdir(backupdir)
    
        interesting_tables.each do |tbl|
        puts "Clearing #{tbl} table.."
        ActiveRecord::Base.connection.execute "TRUNCATE #{tbl}"
        puts "Loading #{tbl} backup file..."
        table = YAML.load_file("#{tbl}.yml")        

        if table.length > 0 && table.first.key?("id")
            highestid = 0
            table.each do |fixture|
             if fixture["id"] > highestid
                highestid = fixture["id"]
             end
            end

            ActiveRecord::Base.connection.execute "SELECT setval('#{tbl}_id_seq',#{highestid})"
            puts "Setting #{tbl}_id sequence to #{highestid}"
        end
         
        #klass = tbl.classify.constantize
        ActiveRecord::Base.transaction do 
        
          puts "Inserting #{table.length} values into #{tbl}"
          table.each do |fixture|
            ActiveRecord::Base.connection.execute "INSERT INTO #{tbl} (#{fixture.keys.join(",")}) VALUES (#{fixture.values.collect { |value| ActiveRecord::Base.connection.quote(value) }.join(",")})", 'Fixture Insert'
          end        
          puts "#{tbl} table restored.\n\n"
        end
       end
    end

 
end