Server Gurus - SQL Databases? (MSSQL, MySQL), Backups and Mass Hosting?

[Richard Boelens]

Is there any way to store the Tekkit Server Data on a SQL Database?

Looking to store :

World

Player Info (Inventory, location, exp, save, etc)

Reason I ask is,

1) Would make managing and viewing data easier

2) You can back up SQL databases, live, without having to shut down, copy files and restart the server

3) I already have servers optimized for running and handling SQL databases exclusively

4) I am looking to host multiple servers, and it would be easier to manage if the data was managed through one instance (with multiple databases)

Also, I see that there are several hosting companies that run Minecraft/Tekkit hosting. Running multiple instances of the GUI or .jar executable would be extremely poor for resource/server management so there must be some sort of software out there that allows you to do as such (using different hostnames/subnets/ports etc.

Lastly,

Currently, I am backing up our servers twice a day, but it is a manual process (as I have to shut down the server, copy the files, then restart the server again. Is there a way to either

a) Have the server perform automated backups? Can it be configured?

Can a scheduled task (windows task scheduler) be used to stop, start etc the server?

c) I know VSS is an option, but it is a route I would like to avoid if possible.

d) Anyone have any other ideas for backing up data reliably?

[sct]

No. You can't store Minecraft world information in an SQL database.

[Richard Boelens]

I'm seeing a lot of guides in regards to running minecraft servers on MySQL,

http://www.minecraftforum.net/topic/175430-setup-a-sql-server/

But nothing that explains how to get the server to communicate with it, or configure the server to communicate with SQL.

Is MSSQL an option, or is the syntax specifically for MySQL?

[VideoBoy]

I'm seeing a lot of guides in regards to running minecraft servers on MySQL,

http://www.minecraftforum.net/topic/175430-setup-a-sql-server/

But nothing that explains how to get the server to communicate with it, or configure the server to communicate with SQL.

Is MSSQL an option, or is the syntax specifically for MySQL?

Omg no. That's not for running Minecraft on SQL server. That's for plugins that use SQL databases like LWC and CoreProtect.

You CAN do unmanned automatic backups without restarting. There are plugins for this. I think Essentials plugin has something about backups in the config. Personally, I have a script in /etc/rc.d with start/stop/backup commands. I use cron to do a "light" backup every 30 minutes and then a "full" backup every day at 12am. A light backup copies the entire server folder to another folder using rsync so that only the files that have been modified are copied. This takes about 30 seconds. Then a full backup uploads everything to a SVN repository. I use SVN instead of zip files because it takes less space. One full day backup never exceeds 300MB, where a zip file would be around 2-4GB per day or more depending on the size of your world.

Ideally you should keep SVN updates every hour or so for more precision during rollbacks, but griefing is allowed in my server so I only keep the SVN copies for posterity and in case something else corrupts the world like a power outage or a hard drive crash.

[Wendo]

To backup, use the minebackup plugin. It will backup your worlds and plugins on schedule, compress them and ftp them to another system