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

   1  
   2  ## example crontab entry:
   3  
   4  3 * * * * cd /rails_deployment_dir/current && nice rake backup RAILS_ENV=production >> /rails_deployment_dir/production_backup_system.log
   5  
   6  ## config file - goes in config/backup.yml
   7  
   8  production: 
   9    dirs: 
  10     - db/backups
  11     - public/uploaded_images
  12    servers: 
  13      -  name: backup server number 1
  14         host: gridserver.com
  15         port: 22
  16         user: blah@whatever.com
  17         dir: /home/blah/backups
  18      -  name: backup server two
  19         host: kradradio.com
  20         port: 22
  21         user: kraduser
  22         dir: /home/kraduser/backups_from_my_rails_proj
  23  
  24  
  25  development: 
  26    dirs: 
  27     - db/backups
  28     - public/uploaded_images
  29    servers: 
  30      -  name: local self
  31         host: localhost
  32         port: 5222
  33         user: oneman
  34         dir: /home/oneman/Documents/development_backup
  35  
  36  
  37  ## rake file lib/tasks/backup.rake
  38  
  39  desc "Backup Everything Specified in config/backup.yml"
  40  task :backup => [ "backup:db",  "backup:push"]
  41  
  42  namespace :backup do
  43   
  44      RAILS_APPDIR = RAILS_ROOT.sub("/config/..","")
  45      
  46     def interesting_tables
  47       ActiveRecord::Base.connection.tables.sort.reject! do |tbl|
  48         ['schema_info', 'sessions', 'public_exceptions'].include?(tbl)
  49       end
  50     end
  51    
  52     desc "Push backup to remote server"
  53     task :push  => [:environment] do 
  54        FileUtils.chdir(RAILS_APPDIR)
  55        backup_config = YAML::load( File.open( 'config/backup.yml' ) )[RAILS_ENV]
  56        for server in backup_config["servers"]
  57         puts "Backing up #{RAILS_ENV} directorys #{backup_config['dirs'].join(', ')} to #{server['name']}"
  58         puts "Time is " + Time.now.rfc2822 + "\n\n"
  59           for dir in backup_config["dirs"]
  60            local_dir = RAILS_APPDIR + "/" + dir + "/"
  61            remote_dir = server['dir'] + "/" + dir.split("/").last + "/"
  62            puts "Syncing #{local_dir} to #{server['host']}#{remote_dir}"
  63            sh "/usr/bin/rsync -avz -e 'ssh -p#{server['port']} ' #{local_dir} #{server['user']}@#{server['host']}:#{remote_dir}"
  64           end
  65         puts "Completed backup to #{server['name']}\n\n"
  66        end
  67     end
  68  
  69      task :storedb => :environment do 
  70  
  71        backupdir = RAILS_APPDIR + '/db/backup'
  72        FileUtils.mkdir_p(backupdir)
  73        FileUtils.chdir(backupdir)
  74        puts "Dumping database to activerecord yaml files in #{backupdir}"
  75        interesting_tables.each do |tbl|
  76  
  77          klass = tbl.classify.constantize
  78          puts "Writing #{tbl}..."
  79          File.open("#{tbl}.yml", 'w+') { |f| YAML.dump klass.find(:all).collect(&:attributes), f }      
  80        end
  81        puts "Database Dumped.\n\n"
  82      end
  83  
  84      desc "Dump Current Environment Db to file"    
  85      task :db => [:environment, :storedb ] do
  86        backupdir = RAILS_APPDIR + '/db/backup'
  87        archivedir = RAILS_APPDIR + '/db/backups'
  88        backup_filename = "#{RAILS_ENV}_db_backup_#{Time.now.strftime("%B.%d.%Y_at_%I.%M.%S%p_%Z")}.tar.bz2"
  89        FileUtils.mkdir_p(archivedir)
  90        puts "Archiving #{backupdir} yaml files to #{backup_filename}\n\n"
  91        `tar -C #{backupdir} -cjf #{backup_filename} *`
  92        `mv #{backup_filename} #{archivedir}`
  93      end
  94  
  95      desc "Restore Current Environment Db from a file"    
  96      task :restoredb => [:environment] do 
  97          backupdir = RAILS_APPDIR + '/db/backup'
  98          archivedir = RAILS_APPDIR + '/db/backups'
  99          print "Input a file to load into the db: #{archivedir}/"
 100          backup_filename = STDIN.gets.chomp
 101          puts "Loading backup file: #{backup_filename}"
 102          FileUtils.chdir(archivedir)
 103          `tar -xjf #{backup_filename}`
 104          `mv *.yml #{backupdir}`
 105          FileUtils.mkdir_p(backupdir)
 106          FileUtils.chdir(backupdir)
 107      
 108          interesting_tables.each do |tbl|
 109          puts "Clearing #{tbl} table.."
 110          ActiveRecord::Base.connection.execute "TRUNCATE #{tbl}"
 111          puts "Loading #{tbl} backup file..."
 112          table = YAML.load_file("#{tbl}.yml")        
 113  
 114          if table.length > 0 && table.first.key?("id")
 115              highestid = 0
 116              table.each do |fixture|
 117               if fixture["id"] > highestid
 118                  highestid = fixture["id"]
 119               end
 120              end
 121  
 122              ActiveRecord::Base.connection.execute "SELECT setval('#{tbl}_id_seq',#{highestid})"
 123              puts "Setting #{tbl}_id sequence to #{highestid}"
 124          end
 125           
 126          #klass = tbl.classify.constantize
 127          ActiveRecord::Base.transaction do 
 128          
 129            puts "Inserting #{table.length} values into #{tbl}"
 130            table.each do |fixture|
 131              ActiveRecord::Base.connection.execute "INSERT INTO #{tbl} (#{fixture.keys.join(",")}) VALUES (#{fixture.values.collect { |value| ActiveRecord::Base.connection.quote(value) }.join(",")})", 'Fixture Insert'
 132            end        
 133            puts "#{tbl} table restored.\n\n"
 134          end
 135         end
 136      end
 137  
 138   
 139  end