Making backups a joy

We’ve all heard it a thousand times and I’ve been guilty of saying it as well:

“Do you have a recent backup?”

These words are usually uttered about five minutes after a fatal system crash from a colleague or that buddy who knows computer stuff better than you. The silence in the room is only broken by the sound of the read head clicking faintly from the obliterated hard drive sitting in your laptop.

Like virus protection the majority of computer users simply don’t have the time or understanding to put preventative measures in place to deal with these situations. They buy a shiny new system and convince themselves it simply won’t break and hey they only use it for email and surfing nothing important….. oh, hang on you mean my CV I just updated is gone, all my photos of me eating a family bargain bucket on my own are erased.

Enough with the scene setting, we all know it. As a one-man business the buck stops with me when it comes to backing up my entire business assets as they are all electronic and this is the reason behind this post. I would like to share with you how I do my backups.

The Setup

I have a fairly simple hardware setup. My MacBook laptop for all my communications, documents, music, graphics.

Next to this is my Windows 2008 Server, this is a custom PC which covers a multitude of functions. Primarily its my central file storage, it has a modest 500GB raid which I store everything on. All my projects, source code, websites, movies, emulators, fonts, icons, logos, software installs, 3D models etc… I also log into this machine to do my actual development work, either via RDP on the Mac (when remote) or directly on the machine if I’m at home.

Last, but not least my web server. This is a dedicated and hosted windows 2003 server with 1 & 1 internet. All my websites including this one are housed on this machine.

DropBox

Everybody is raving about it recently and so they should. I’ve been an avid user for over a year now as its just an excellent file sharing tool. All my systems including my web server have it installed and syncing. The side effect of this is my second use, it works equally as good, if not better than FTP. I simply make a change to a file on my development system and bingo the web server updates. No log in and file upload rubbish, instant syncing. DropBox also plays a vital role in my backup solution as I will explain for each system.

Web Server

The system runs IIS for hosting all my sites and most of them run off of either SQL Server or MySQL. Now I have the actual site source files covered already as they are all on my development server in the office and on DropBox via the syncing. The trouble I faced was the databases as these contained all the dynamic and user generated content. My first step was to make automated database backups. SQL Server and MySQL both have facilities for scheduled backups, which I do daily to the local web server drive at about 3AM. Now the nifty thing I introduced was making this backup location a folder in my DropBox and viola, my database backups are synced with my MacBook and development server.

MacBook

Thankfully Apple have had the insight to include simple, but elegant backups directly into the OS. Yes, its Time Machine. I’ve been using it ever since it first launched and I love it. I have a small 320GB external WD Passport hard drive (USB powered) and I let OS X do all the backing up for me. It’s reasonably unobtrusive and reliable. I have already used it on more than one occasion to retrieve lost files and more importantly I’ve restored two MacBook’s directly from it to bring me back to a complete replica setup in less than an hour – awesome! As mentioned earlier I have DropBox on this machine so all web server and database backups are also on here as well.

Development Server

The most critical of all my backups are on here – many years of development work, plus all my movies and general file storage. I also have a large amount of databases on SQL Server and like my web server I use the facility provided to do daily database backups to the local disk. Attached to this server is an external enclosure with a 500GB drive which leads me to my secret weapon – Second Copy.

This wicked little bit of software allows me to setup a series of profiles for syncing or copying files and folders on a scheduled basis. I have six profiles that synchronise all the various folders of my file storage to the external hard drive. This is all scheduled to run in the early hours of every day and works flawlessly.

Now as with with Mac I have DropBox on this machine which makes the process of updating the webserver incredibly easy without the need for FTP, but I wanted to take it a little further with my most critical files.

As a developer the source code to me is the most important part of my work. If I lost this I would be utterly screwed. Its already on the external drive, but what it that fails. So I have another profile in Second Copy that makes a temporary copy of just the source files of all my projects. Then it lets me call a batch file I’ve written that zips them up into a single file and copies it to my DropBox. This means all my most critical source code is also on all my systems.

Conclusion

This may all seem a bit long winded, but its really not and its all automatic, everyday. The only manual step I take is to make a copy of the external drive (both development server and MacBook) to another drive which I store in a safe. I do this once a month.

Make accounting work for you, not against you

Inspired by this post from John O’Nolan (@johnonolan) I wanted to have my say on how I think FreeAgent has revolutionised the one-man/small business accounting world. Bare in mind this is just my experience with in the UK.

In my opinion accounting still seems to be locked in the 50’s. Having only started my own company Tizma Ltd back in December of 2007 I’ve already seen my share of lunacy and mysticism.

This post is not focusing on the issues, but rather the positives and this is where FreeAgent came in for me. As I’m sure with most of their users I was recommended it by a freelancing colleague.

Well, I think it took me just a few hours that evening to decide I had to have it. So, I signed up there and then, only needing a few details from my accountants and the odd upload of previous transactions to put me bang up to date. They even give kick-backs for recommending users. The more you recommend the cheaper your subscription is…. Genius!

Accounting has gone from a dreadful chore to a simple task and as my confidence over the various aspects grows the more I’m taking back from my accountants. Its liberating.

The icing on the cake

Now, the best for last. FreeAgent also has a full blown API, I couldn’t believe it when I saw it. Admittedly they are a ruby shop and me being a .NET dude it took a little bit of twiddling the bits until I figured it out, but wow is it powerful.

As a one man business selling software direct over the web I strived for automation in the sales/fullfillment process. Since the launch of our first product CSV Easy I’ve had PayPal fully integrated using their IPN system. This allows immediate authorisation and license key generation to take place, arriving in the form of a nice “thank you” email to the customer in minutes. No involvement from me.

The missing piece has always been my accounts. So with the FreeAgent API I’ve created an extension to my fullfillment process that now adds the new contact and invoice automatically. Next time I login to FreeAgent there it is. Awesome!

Conclusion

If you’re a freelancer or a small business FreeAgent is a perfect fit. Thanks guys for an excellent application and service.