[thelist] Web server maintainence and backup

[Tim Burgan]

Hello,

I'm very new to managing web servers. I don't really have a clue.. so I 
was hoping I could get some help.

- What's the best way to backup data on a web server?
I was thinking that a second server would be needed just to mirror the 
data on the live server. But then what if I decide I need to store 
multiple backups (ie. daily backups stored over 2 weeks, therefore 
copies 14 backups needed).

What do you currently do? Or, what is the optimal method?


- When needing to perform maintainence on a web server (such as updating 
the code used on some pages, or installing new services, etc), what are 
the best strategies to do this without interupting current users on the 
site?
Do you just make the web server "dead" so when visitors go to my URL, 
they get a 404, or something. If I do this, what happens to visitors 
that are already on the website, performing some critical action, such 
as changing their account settings, changing their password, or 
something. They won't know what happened.


Is there a way to make all of this seamless to the user, but also not a 
burden for when I need to perform maintainence?

Thanks

Tim