Using svnadmin and rsync to Backup an SVN Repository to a Remote Server

In order to ensure your SVN repository is fully backed up you should schedule regular backups and store them on a remote machine. This document shows how to use svnadmin to backup your repository, rsync to copy it to a remote server, and cron to automate the process (so you don't have to remember to run the backup yourself).

First, use the svnadmin dump function to dump a copy of your repository to the local machine using a command like this:

svnadmin dump /path/to/repository/location >/path/to/backup/file

e.g.,

svnadmin dump ~/webapps/svn/ >~/svn.backup.bak

This would create a new file in your home directory called svn.backup.bak containing all the information needed to recreate the SVN repository stored in ~/webapps/svn/

In order to automate this process you should use a scheduler like cron, which this tutorial does.

First you will need to ensure that your machine is running cron, rsync, and ssh. You will also need to know the following:

1. the location of your repository (this example uses ~/webapps/svn/)
2. the path of the directory used to store the SVN backup (this example will use a called directory in your home directory called automated_backups to store this file, i.e., ~/automated_backups)
3. the name or address of the remote server. This server must be network accessible and must run sshd (this example will use a machine called www.example.com)
4. the path of the directory where backups will be stored on the server (in this example this path is /backups). This directory must be writable by the rsync process

You will need to create a new script containing the commands needed to make your backup. Create a new file in the backup directory called svn.backup.sh. Make sure it is executable:

cd ~/automated_backups
touch svn.backup.sh
chmod +x svn.backup.sh

Now edit the new script and enter the following:

LOGFILE=’rsync.backups.log’
SVN_BACKUP_FILENAME=~/automated_backups/svn.backup.`date +%Y.%m.%d`.bak
echo $’\n\n’ >> $LOGFILE
svnadmin dump ~/webapps/svn/ > $SVN_BACKUP_FILENAME
/usr/bin/rsync --delete --rsync-path='nice -n 19 rsync' -avz -e ssh $SVN_BACKUP_FILENAME example.com:/backups 2>&1 >> $LOGFILE

Now you should be able to execute this script which will dump a copy of your SVN repository and rsync it to your remote server. Unfortunately it will ask for a username/password every time this is run which is not acceptable for an automated script. To overcome this you will need to set up a new ssh key to allow you to log into the server without a password.

Edit your crontab now with the following command:

crontab -e

And add the following line:

49 1 * * * cd ~/automated_backups;./svn.backup.sh

This will execute the backup script automatically at 1:49am every day.