To get to this page, go to Settings → Database -> Offsite Backup

The Amazon S3 Backup settings let VPOP3 upload messages to the Amazon S3 storage service. VPOP3 uploads message and message status changes as they occur, and it only needs to upload changes, rather than being a full backup just once a day as the local backup facility is. However, the Offsite Backup is purely for messages. Users, Mappings and other settings are not backed up using this facility. Because the S3 service does not know about VPOP3 and is just a plain file store (unlike our Offsite Backup service), certain things involve more data transfer, for instance moving messages may require messages to be uploaded again using the S3 service, but not using our Offsite Backup service.

If the VPOP3 server PC fails, you can install VPOP3 on a new PC, and put in the same Amazon S3 details and have VPOP3 download them to the new server.

To use this facility, you need to have an Amazon S3 account and create a 'bucket' for the backup to be stored in (we recommend that you do not use a bucket used for any other purpose).

 

Once you have created the S3 Bucket Name and have the security credentials, enter the S3 Bucket name, Access key and Secret Key into the VPOP3 settings.

You can click the Compress messages before uploading button to have VPOP3 compress the messages (using GZIP) before uploading them).

If you set an Encryption Key, then VPOP3 will encrypt the messages with the supplied encryption key using the Blowfish algorithm before uploading them. Note that the encryption key is not recoverable, so if you set this, do not lose it.

If you change the Compression or Encryption options after enabling S3 backup, then VPOP3 will have to start the backup process from the beginning so that the messages are compressed/encrypted as appropriate.

When you press Save Settings, then the S3 and compression/encryption options will be saved in VPOP3.

You can then check Upload messages... or Download messages... depending on whether you want VPOP3 to backup or restore messages. While either of these options is checked, you cannot alter the S3 settings. You can enable both options to allow multi-master mirroring between two VPOP3 servers (assuming you have the appropriate licences) using the S3 store as an intermediary, but note that this is asynchronous mirroring so, while it is OK to do if different users usually use different servers, but if one user can use both servers at the same time, then they may encounter strange behaviour.

The Upload status and Download status sections show the upload & download status of the S3 backup facility.

 

See also: Offsite Backup