SVN repository backup strategies

Here is a Perl script that will:

1. Backup the repo
2. Copy it to another server via SCP
3. Retrieve the backup
4. Create a test repository from the backup
5. Do a test checkout
6. Email you with any errors (via cron)

The script:

my $svn_repo = "/var/svn";  
my $bkup_dir = "/home/backup_user/backups";
my $bkup_file = "my_backup-";
my $tmp_dir = "/home/backup_user/tmp";   
my $bkup_svr = "my.backup.com";
my $bkup_svr_login = "backup";

$bkup_file = $bkup_file . `date +%Y%m%d-%H%M`;
chomp $bkup_file;
my $youngest = `svnlook youngest $svn_repo`;
chomp $youngest;

my $dump_command = "svnadmin  -q dump $svn_repo > $bkup_dir/$bkup_file ";
print "\nDumping Subversion repo $svn_repo to $bkup_file...\n";
print `$dump_command`;
print "Backing up through revision $youngest... \n";
print "\nCompressing dump file...\n";
print `gzip -9 $bkup_dir/$bkup_file\n`;
chomp $bkup_file;
my $zipped_file = $bkup_dir . "/" . $bkup_file . ".gz";
print "\nCreated $zipped_file\n";
print `scp $zipped_file $bkup_svr_login\@$bkup_svr:/home/backup/`;
print "\n$bkup_file.gz transfered to $bkup_svr\n";

#Test Backup
print "\n---------------------------------------\n";
print "Testing Backup";
print "\n---------------------------------------\n";
print "Downloading $bkup_file.gz from $bkup_svr\n";
print `scp $bkup_svr_login\@$bkup_svr:/home/backup/$bkup_file.gz $tmp_dir/`;
print "Unzipping $bkup_file.gz\n";
print `gunzip $tmp_dir/$bkup_file.gz`;
print "Creating test repository\n";
print `svnadmin create $tmp_dir/test_repo`;
print "Loading repository\n";
print `svnadmin -q load $tmp_dir/test_repo < $tmp_dir/$bkup_file`;
print "Checking out repository\n";
print `svn -q co file://$tmp_dir/test_repo $tmp_dir/test_checkout`;
print "Cleaning up\n";
print `rm -f $tmp_dir/$bkup_file`;
print `rm -rf $tmp_dir/test_checkout`;
print `rm -rf $tmp_dir/test_repo`;

Script source and more details about the rational for this type of backup.

There's a hotbackup.py script available on the Subversion web site that's quite handy for automating backups.

http://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/subversion/trunk/tools/backup/hot-backup.py.in

You could use something like (Linux):

svnadmin dump repositorypath | gzip > backupname.svn.gz

Since Windows does not support GZip it is just:

svnadmin dump repositorypath > backupname.svn

We use svnadmin hotcopy, e.g.:

svnadmin hotcopy C:\svn\repo D:\backups\svn\repo

As per the book:

You can run this command at any time and make a safe copy of the repository, regardless of whether other processes are using the repository.

You can of course ZIP (preferably 7-Zip) the backup copy. IMHO It's the most straightforward of the backup options: in case of disaster there's little to do other than unzip it back into position.