dovecot - Oct 2008 - Any suggestions for backing up an imap server and whould maildir or dbox be better than mbox?

Hi,

we run a Red Hat EL 5.2 mailserver with dovecot as the imap server. 
Mails are stored in mbox format and there are about 134GB of mail.

At the moment users copy their importent mail to their workstation 
accounts wich are backed up nightly.

What are your suggestions to back up the mails not copied? Thanks for 
any comments.

BTW: Dose changing the mailbox format from mbox to Maildir or dbox dose 
have any advantages?

Best regards

G?tz Reinicke
-- 
G?tz Reinicke
IT-Koordinator

Tel. +49 7141 969 420
Fax  +49 7141 969 55 420
E-Mail goetz.reinicke at filmakademie.de

Filmakademie Baden-W?rttemberg GmbH
Mathildenstr. 20
71638 Ludwigsburg
www.filmakademie.de

Eintragung Amtsgericht Stuttgart HRB 205016
Vorsitzende des Aufsichtsrats:
Prof. Dr. Claudia H?bner
Staatsr?tin f?r Demographischen Wandel und f?r Senioren im Staatsministerium

Gesch?ftsf?hrer:
Prof. Thomas Schadt

From: G?tz Reinicke 
> Hi,
> 
> we run a Red Hat EL 5.2 mailserver with dovecot as the imap server. 
> Mails are stored in mbox format and there are about 134GB of mail.
> 
> At the moment users copy their importent mail to their workstation 
> accounts wich are backed up nightly.
> 
> What are your suggestions to back up the mails not copied? Thanks for 
> any comments.
You can simply rsync the whole mail store. Gets pretty efficient after the first
run. Or take a look at rdiff-backup if you need to store previous copies.
> BTW: Dose changing the mailbox format from mbox to Maildir or dbox dose 
> have any advantages?
I don't think it makes any difference in this case.