Windows Backup for SVN Repositories

Question

I am running a SVN server on my Windows Server and want to schedule an automated backup procedure. I will always be the only one working on the repository. Should I bother with hotcopy or can I use a simple Windows backup application to backup the repositories? What about xcopy or robocopy?

Answer 1

I find simply copy / pasting (XCopy) the repositories is the easiest solution. You may want to consider dumping the repository to a single file before you copy it as I find copying a single large file is much quicker than copying a bunch of smaller files. This probably isn't an issue if your repository is small, but something to consider:

svnadmin dump /path/to/repository > repository-name.dmp

Answer 2

Kind of duplicate SVN backups..is hotcopy enough or should I worry about full and incremental dumps? question.

Do not forget to think about:

• the frequency of your backups (what happens if it crashes between two backups ?)
• the cleaning process (how many backups do you want to keep over time ?)
• the free space management (what kind of disk space each backup takes ?)
• the restore procedure: TEST it ;) A backup which has never been tested is not a "real" backup ;)