Git for distributed backups

I usually use svn for code and document backups but today I decided to use git to automate my database backups. Git seems to run much faster and offers a bit more security. It also functions as a good transport for multiple distribution to remote sites.

The backups are in ~/backups so I created a git repository and moved it to my remote slicehost site. Here are the steps:

• cd backups
• git init
• git commit -a -m 'initial repo'
• cd ~
• git clone --bare ~/backups backups.git
  
• scp -r backups.git dpw@raincity.slice.com:

The next step was to move the backups.git folder to /public/git and chown -R git:git. Then to read the repo back:

• mv backups /tmp
• git clone ssh://git@raincity.slice.com/public/git/backups.git

At this point I have local and remote repos. I went to other machines and cloned the repo to insure that I have multiple locations on and off site. The next step was to hook git up to my standard backup from the master database. At the tail end of the SQL backup script I do this:

• git add .
• git commit -m "automated backup on `date`..."
• git push

And there you go. This provides a local and remote backup. Configuring cron on other machines is as simple as doing a 'cd ~/backups ; git pull'. Life is easy...