[CentOS] Backup server

[Les Mikesell]

On 1/13/2010 8:51 AM, Sorin Srbu wrote:
>
>>
>> Between compression and pooling, I get about 10x the raw data being archived
>> with backuppc - it beats juggling tapes and you can let the users access the
>> backups of their own machine through a web interface.  There are some down
>> sides
>> to plan around though: the compression takes some CPU and is slower than a
>> stock
>> rsync run, and the pooling is done with hardlinks which forces the archive to
>> be
>> on a single filesystem and makes it hard to duplicate for offsite copies.
>> There's an RPM in epel that is easy to install on Centos.
>
> Sound very interesting indeed!
>
> I don't think the performance will be a problem, the server's a calculation
> machine that has now been scrapped running a dual-xeon at 2,something GHz and
> some 4GB RAM IIRC. Do you think the software-raid5 array used, would be a
> problem in this case?
>
> I've never had any problems with software raid5 in linux before, but you never
> know...

There's a big write performance hit from raid5 (software or not).  It 
may not be enough to be a showstopper but I wouldn't recommend it.  Can 
you reconfigure to a 0+1 or some other type that has better performance 
without losing too much space?   The archive does have to be on a single 
filesystem, though, and if you use the epel RPM it makes things easier 
if you mount the volume at /var/lib/BackupPC before the install.
See 'how to change archive directory' from:
http://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/backuppc/index.php?title=Tips_and_Tricks
to do it after the install.

-- 
   Les Mikesell
    lesmikesell at gmail.com