Stay Hungry

I didn’t want a desktop app just to browse my files on S3 and double check that my code was actually doing what it seemed to be doing. I have no regular need to access these files and don’t want another throw-away app cluttering up my MBP.  So I did a little searching, and found this sweet freebie…

An awesome web based file manager for S3: http://www.s3fm.com/

You got something better?

If you don’t believe backing up your data is important, come back when (not if) you lose some important information.  Sensible (Rails) developers, read on…

I’ve seen (and used) decent backup solutions involving mysqldump, sftp and an additional server.  They’re okay, but with a few plugins/gems your DB backup can be elegant (and Amazon secure).  I happen to like db2s3.  Configure the gem like the README says.  Then add a couple of whenever tasks:

every 1.hour { rake “db2s3:backup:full” }

every 1.day { rake “db2s3:backup:clean” }

Holy shit done.  But you will have to pay the S3 bill.  So pick up a penny from the ground every day.  You’ll be $.25 ahead of the game at the end of the month.

Gotchas?  Of course.  db2s3 relies on aws-s3, so you must have that gem installed (this is not explained in the README).  NBD, but if you happen to be using right_aws with paperclip, like me, you may run into issues due to the gem load order.  So, keep your house in order:

config.gem “aws-s3”, :lib => “aws/s3”, :version => ‘>= 0.6.2’

config.gem “right_aws”

Thoughts?