Hmm... All the content types I am developing for my CMF site will serialize to something that will keep metadata. For documents, this is easy: use XML or embed metadata in HTML meta elements. For binary types (haven't addressed this yet), I might end up making them look like a folder for FTP purposes, and saving two files in the directory named after the object id: a text file in XML or RFC822 for metadata, and the binary file itself. You do make a good point about security about the objects. I'm really of the opinion at the moment that a good backup strategy is to get both neutral content, and Zope-specific ZODB storage backups to try and deal with this in the most comprehensive way. Sean -----Original Message----- From: Charlie Reiman [mailto:creiman@kefta.com] Sent: Thursday, November 14, 2002 1:21 PM To: sean.upton@uniontrib.com; Chinku_Simon@infosys.com; zope@zope.org Subject: RE: [Zope] Regarding ZOPE backup procedure

-----Original Message----- From: zope-admin@zope.org [mailto:zope-admin@zope.org]On Behalf Of sean.upton@uniontrib.com Sent: Thursday, November 14, 2002 12:25 PM To: Chinku_Simon@infosys.com; zope@zope.org Subject: RE: [Zope] Regarding ZOPE backup procedure

Also worth considering: figure out a way to back up your content in a format other than just backing up your ZODB (serialize it and download it via FTP or something). Consider some way to serialize your CMF content into something like plain-text files so that you not only have a backup of your database, but also a neutral (archival) backup of your content as well.

For backup of your ZODB, consider use of DirectoryStorage.

I would suggest you never back up with FTP. FTP generally does not present enough metadata to even begin to reassemble a site. For instance, folder properties and SQL method connection data are not in the FTP format. I imagine you would lose all security information as well. FTP is intended primarly for editing object bodies. Otherwise I agrew with Sean. If you are super lazy, you might also want to consider setting up a zsyncer as a quick & ditry backup solution. ZSyncer isn't designed for this purpose but it could be used in this way. This would also let you swap the backup server pretty quickly, though not automatically.