I've got a Redhat 5 server running Samba, and two dualboot CentOS 5 workstations.
Until we get a better backup strategy, I'm backing up the workstations to the server via mounting a shared samba drive to /mnt.
Trying tar cvf /mnt/samba_share/backup.tar /* eventually yields backing up /mnt, which produces an unwanted loop, including /mnt/samba_share
I looked at tar with --exclude /mnt but didn't seem to get the results I wanted.
I tried dump, which looked like it was working, but I have no idea what files it was backing up, and couldn't find an option in the man page to have it show me the files. I would have let it go, but since I couldn't be sure about /mnt recusion, I opted out of it.
I ended up, for now, tarring each top-level directory to its own tar file, except, of course, for /mnt.
What do people suggest?
Thanks.
Scott
Around 01:56am on Saturday, August 18, 2007 (UK time), Scott Ehrlich scrawled:
Trying tar cvf /mnt/samba_share/backup.tar /* eventually yields backing up /mnt, which produces an unwanted loop, including /mnt/samba_share
I looked at tar with --exclude /mnt but didn't seem to get the results I wanted.
tar cvf /mnt/samba_share/backup.tar --exclude=/mnt /*
I'd also use nfs, not samba.
Steve
On Sat, 18 Aug 2007, Steve Searle wrote:
Around 01:56am on Saturday, August 18, 2007 (UK time), Scott Ehrlich scrawled:
Trying tar cvf /mnt/samba_share/backup.tar /* eventually yields backing up /mnt, which produces an unwanted loop, including /mnt/samba_share
I looked at tar with --exclude /mnt but didn't seem to get the results I wanted.
tar cvf /mnt/samba_share/backup.tar --exclude=/mnt /*
I'd also use nfs, not samba.
I'm working on a centralized, single-sign-on account structure from the server to the workstations, combining Linux and XP. I've been told OpenLDAP with Kerberos can do it. Help here would also be most appreciated.
Steve
--
A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text. Q: Why is top-posting a bad thing?
02:00:14 up 12 days, 14:24, 1 user, load average: 0.00, 0.00, 0.00
--On Friday, August 17, 2007 8:56 PM -0400 Scott Ehrlich scott@MIT.EDU wrote:
I tried dump, which looked like it was working, but I have no idea what files it was backing up, and couldn't find an option in the man page to have it show me the files. I would have let it go, but since I couldn't be sure about /mnt recusion, I opted out of it.
dump is great. I've been using it since Red Hat 5.2.
It doesn't back up through the filesystem. It backs up directly through the raw device, using the ext3 library. Because of this, it backs up one partition per invocation. If you want to back up more than one partition, you need to run dump multiple times, saving each dump file separately. Dump first saves partition-wide metadata, then the directories, then the files.
It can optionally write helper files (quick file access, or QFA) to make it easy for restore to rapidly find a file in a restore operation even if your dump spans multiple tapes. (The QFA file records the seek points for each inode.)
By default, dump saves the entire partition. You can mark files to exclude (using chattr) and with an appropriate command line switch dump will then exclude those files.
Because dump uses the raw device and not the filesystem, it will also backup files hidden behind a mount point. This can make verify operations (using restore) confusing because restore *does* use the filesystem and won't be able to reach the files hidden behind mount points. But you do get an accurate representation of the real state of the partition.
dump has its own support page and mailing list:
What do people suggest?
Thanks.
Scott
Scott,
RSYNC!!!!!
For info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rsync Homepage: http://rsync.samba.org/
Clients available for Win32 as well. This is an easy, tried-and-true method of backing up a workstation (or other servers) to a central server. RSYNC only copies over new/changed files, so you have a more efficient backup. You can also easily keep incremental backups.
-Ken
Ken Price wrote:
What do people suggest?
Thanks.
Scott
Scott,
RSYNC!!!!!
For info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rsync Homepage: http://rsync.samba.org/
Clients available for Win32 as well. This is an easy, tried-and-true method of backing up a workstation (or other servers) to a central server. RSYNC only copies over new/changed files, so you have a more efficient backup. You can also easily keep incremental backups.
Even better, use backuppc: http://backuppc.sourceforge.net/ which can use tar, smb, or rsync to perform the backups, then uses compression and hardlinking to eliminate duplication and keep about 10x the backup history that you'd expect in a given amount of space. Plus it provides a nice web interface to browse backups and restore files.
--On Monday, August 20, 2007 10:51 AM -0500 Les Mikesell lesmikesell@gmail.com wrote:
Even better, use backuppc: http://backuppc.sourceforge.net/ which can use tar, smb, or rsync to perform the backups, then uses compression and hardlinking to eliminate duplication and keep about 10x the backup history that you'd expect in a given amount of space. Plus it provides a nice web interface to browse backups and restore files.
Another possibility is Bacula, which has native clients for other OS's that can back up their metadata. BackupPC only knows how to back up Linux metadata.
Kenneth Porter wrote:
--On Monday, August 20, 2007 10:51 AM -0500 Les Mikesell lesmikesell@gmail.com wrote:
Even better, use backuppc: http://backuppc.sourceforge.net/ which can use tar, smb, or rsync to perform the backups, then uses compression and hardlinking to eliminate duplication and keep about 10x the backup history that you'd expect in a given amount of space. Plus it provides a nice web interface to browse backups and restore files.
Another possibility is Bacula, which has native clients for other OS's that can back up their metadata. BackupPC only knows how to back up Linux metadata.
Yes, unfortunately you have to choose between being able to keep much more history online with no need to install a client agent and being able to save windows metadata. Bacula also has better integration for tape archiving. Backuppc can write to tapes but it is sort of an afterthought.
--On Monday, August 20, 2007 11:11 AM -0500 Les Mikesell lesmikesell@gmail.com wrote:
Yes, unfortunately you have to choose between being able to keep much more history online with no need to install a client agent and being able to save windows metadata. Bacula also has better integration for tape archiving. Backuppc can write to tapes but it is sort of an afterthought.
Yes, I'm looking at having to use Bacula for my Windows servers for their metadata but I'd sure like to have BackupPC's ability to store single copies of common files from multiple clients.
Kenneth Porter wrote:
--On Monday, August 20, 2007 11:11 AM -0500 Les Mikesell lesmikesell@gmail.com wrote:
Yes, unfortunately you have to choose between being able to keep much more history online with no need to install a client agent and being able to save windows metadata. Bacula also has better integration for tape archiving. Backuppc can write to tapes but it is sort of an afterthought.
Yes, I'm looking at having to use Bacula for my Windows servers for their metadata but I'd sure like to have BackupPC's ability to store single copies of common files from multiple clients.
Some people on the backuppc mail list have mentioned using ntbackup to dump system state and some critical files to a local disk file that is picked up by the backuppc run and living with the client's-eye view of the rest.
I've got a Redhat 5 server running Samba, and two dualboot CentOS 5 workstations.
Until we get a better backup strategy, I'm backing up the workstations to the server via mounting a shared samba drive to /mnt.
Trying tar cvf /mnt/samba_share/backup.tar /* eventually yields backing up /mnt, which produces an unwanted loop, including /mnt/samba_share
I looked at tar with --exclude /mnt but didn't seem to get the results I wanted.
I tried dump, which looked like it was working, but I have no idea what files it was backing up, and couldn't find an option in the man page to have it show me the files. I would have let it go, but since I couldn't be sure about /mnt recusion, I opted out of it.
I ended up, for now, tarring each top-level directory to its own tar file, except, of course, for /mnt.
What do people suggest?
www.amanda.org
backed up windows servers using this and its great -
Scott Ehrlich wrote:
I've got a Redhat 5 server running Samba, and two dualboot CentOS 5 workstations.
Until we get a better backup strategy, I'm backing up the workstations to the server via mounting a shared samba drive to /mnt.
I don't know if I have interpreted exactly what you are trying to do but I have used the program rdiff-backup to backup samba directories for a 30 pc computer lab. This software allow incremental backup which was what I liked about it. I also was able to use the remote features of the software (with ssh) to backup from my samba server to another server. It worked just fine.
I am doing less of that because I also backup a number of staff windows machines that are connected to our campus MS domain. I have used a product for many years (it started on mac then win) - Dantz/EMC Retrospect. This has the ability to backup linux computers. One of my reasons for going this direction is my servers have expensive scsi drives vs cheap sata drives on the Retro box. It does incremental backups and is easy to setup backups through the Retro GIU.
Good luck.
Denis Becker Information Technology - Engineering MN State Univ., Mankato
-
Denis -
Ken Price -
Kenneth Porter -
Les Mikesell -
Scott Ehrlich -
Steve Searle -
Tom Brown