We all know backups are important. I’ve found what I consider a pretty good backup solution using Amazon S3. It’s super cheap, your backups are in a secure location, and you can get to them from anywhere. For my backup solution, I’m using Debian Linux (Etch), but this whole setup is not dependent on your current favorite flavor of Linux because it uses Java.

1. Signup for Amazon S3: http://aws.amazon.com/s3/
2. Install the latest Java Runtime Environment: http://java.sun.com/javase/downloads/index.jsp
3. Download Jets3t: http://jets3t.s3.amazonaws.com/downloads.html
4. Extract Jets3t installation to a location on your server.Example: /usr/local/jets3t/
5. Add your AWS account key and private key to the “synchronize” tool configuration file:Example: /usr/local/jets3t/configs/synchronize.properties
6. Use an S3 browser tool like Firefox S3 Organizer to add two buckets: one for file backups and one for MySQL backups.
7. Add a MySQL user whose primary function is dumping data. Let’s call it ‘dump’ with the password ‘dump’:
   [code lang="bash"]mysql>GRANT SELECT, LOCK TABLES ON exampleDB.* to 'dump' identified by 'dump';[/code]
8. Build your backup script (replace paths with your own) called s3backup.sh:
   [code lang="bash"]JAVA_HOME=/usr/local/j2re1.4.2_17
   export JAVA_HOME
   JETS3T_HOME=/usr/local/j3ts3t
   export JETS3T_HOME
   SYNC=/usr/local/jets3t/bin/synchronize.sh
   WWWROOT=/var/www/fakeuser/
   MYSQLBUCKET=example-bucket-mysql
   WWWBUCKET=example-bucket-www
   MYSQLDUMPDIR=/usr/local/mysql-dumps
   WWWDUMPDIR=/usr/local/www-dumps
   # Perform backup logic
   dayOfWeek = `date +%a`
   dumpSQL="backup-www-example-com-${dayOfWeek}.sql.gz"
   dumpWWW="backup-www-example-com-${dayOfWeek}.tar.gz"
   mysqldump -u dump -pdump exampleDB | gzip > "${MYSQLDUMPDIR}/${dumpSQL}"
   # Compress the website into an archive
   cd ${WWWROOT}
   tar -czf "${WWWDUMPDIR}/${dumpWWW}" .
   # Perform Jets3t synchronize with Amazon S3
   $SYNC --quiet --nodelete UP "${WWWBUCKET}" "${WWWDUMPDIR}/${dumpWWW}"
   rm -f "${WWWDUMPDIR}/${dumpWWW}"
   $SYNC --quiet --nodelete UP "${MYSQLBUCKET}" "${MYSQLDUMPDIR}/${dumpSQL}"
   rm -f "${MYSQLDUMPDIR}/${dumpSQL}"[/code]
9. Make sure your script has execute permission
10. Add a cron job to perform daily backups:
    [code lang="bash"]$>crontab -e
    0 0 * * * /root/s3backup.sh[/code]

That’s it. Good luck!

What do you do?

To build your own Joomla video community from the ground up, you will need to:

1. Create your own video player – most likely it would be in built in Flash
2. Convert raw videos to an Internet-appropriate size & quality
3. Upload your converted videos to your server (or hosting provider’s server)
4. Keep a close eye on your server resources: disk space and bandwidth in particular. Videos will fill up your free space much more quickly than images, web pages, or any other type of file.
5. Install a Joomla video gallery component that provides support for using your own files.
6. Optional: If you want to allow users to “stream” videos (meaning they can jump around different parts of the video without downloading the entire thing), it will usually require a separate streaming server, and someone with the technical know-how to get things running smoothly.

For those who don’t have the opportunity, time, know-how, or resources to do the above, then what other option do you have if you don’t want to have low-quality videos with another business’ branding?

The answer:

JVideo is a component – with it you can upload videos, organize videos, stream videos, and more. You don’t need to purchase additional hardware or worry about your videos directing your customers elsewhere. JVideo uses an API powered by Infinovision, so all you need to do is setup an account, install the component, and you’re good to go. It’s a new way to think about video hosting. In fact, you pretty much don’t have to think about it.

Check out the video below from the JVideo demo site and compare it to the YouTube equivalent (try full-screen for a real eye-opener):