Backup Central

Here (attached) is a quick fix i applied to rdiff-backup so i didn't have to
start the backup all over, my disk got full and we are (unfortunately) still
not using lvm.
I am not sure as to the cleanliness of the patch, but it seems to be working
fine, hopefully this can be helpful, as i think having a disk full with rdiff-
backup is a PITA...

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Here (attached) is a quick fix i applied to rdiff-backup so i didn't have to
start the backup all over, my disk got full and we are (unfortunately) still
not using lvm.
I am not sure as to the cleanliness of the patch, but it seems to be working
fine, hopefully this can be helpful, as i think having a disk full with rdiff-
backup is a PITA...

_______________________________________________
rdiff-backup-users mailing list at rdiff-backup-users < at > nongnu.org
http://lists.nongnu.org/mailman/listinfo/rdiff-backup-users
Wiki URL: http://rdiff-backup.solutionsfirst.com.au/index.php/RdiffBackupWiki

Mmm maybe or maybe just an admin flaw?
I'm not an rdiff-backup developer mind just a user.

I think you might find a few bits of software that crash if they run out of hard drive space.
There are other alert programs that alarm when drive space is getting low.

Sure it would be nice if rdiff-backup could recover and save one when this happens and it
does happen. There was some discussion on list some time back about being able to specify
temp space so that rdiff-backup could perform at least a roll back.

Cheers
Gavin

John Soros wrote: So then why is this not done automatically? I mean, if your software can't
take it if it runs out of space, that's a design flaw you need to prepare for.
The user will usually not guess the problem with the software until it's too
late.
Thanks
John


Gavin <gavin < at > kromhouts.net> ([email]gavin < at > kromhouts.net[/email]) wrote on Saturday 05 December 2009
A work around or way to protect against this is to create an appropriate
sized blank file in the backup partition.
I usually create a 1GB blank file:

dd if=/dev/zero of=EmptyFile bs=1M count=1000

Then when the backup fails just delete the blank file and run the backup
again.
The added benefit of doing this is that it gives you a soft limit and
some time to re-organise your drives/partitions.
(Speaking of which it's about time for me to do just that)

Cheers
Gavin

John Soros wrote:
Here (attached) is a quick fix i applied to rdiff-backup so i didn't have
to start the backup all over, my disk got full and we are (unfortunately)
still not using lvm.
I am not sure as to the cleanliness of the patch, but it seems to be
working fine, hopefully this can be helpful, as i think having a disk
full with rdiff- backup is a PITA...

------------------------------------------------------------------------

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Wiki URL:
http://rdiff-backup.solutionsfirst.com.au/index.php/RdiffBackupWiki


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Wiki URL: http://rdiff-backup.solutionsfirst.com.au/index.php/RdiffBackupWiki

On Mon, Dec 07, 2009 at 03:22:22PM +1000, Gavin wrote:
Mmm maybe or maybe just an admin flaw?
I'm not an rdiff-backup developer mind just a user.

I think you might find a few bits of software that crash if they run out
of hard drive space.
There are other alert programs that alarm when drive space is getting low.

Sure it would be nice if rdiff-backup could recover and save one when
this happens and it
does happen. There was some discussion on list some time back about
being able to specify
temp space so that rdiff-backup could perform at least a roll back.

Another option is to have rdiff-backup look for a certain amount of free
space (configurable) and fail if its not available

Alex


Cheers
Gavin

[snip]

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Ok, sorry, i might have been a bit harsh...
No, what i don't understand, really, is why rdiff-backup needs free space to
clean up old snapshots: no it doesn't, my patch goes to show that if you treat
the cleanup as a read-only operation, it will go through smoothly: it
*doesn't* need any free space, the only thing that needed free space for the
cleanup was creating a useless temporary file.
Also, (this was a while ago, but if i remember correctly) if the tmpdir option
did what it's told entirely (some temporary files were created in tmpdir, some
in the backup root), you wouln't be in such a trouble when the disk is full.
I wonder if anyone had a look at my patch, and if so if they think it's of any
interest? or do they have any other suggestions?
Thanks,
John


Alex Samad <alex < at > samad.com.au> wrote on Monday 07 December 2009
On Mon, Dec 07, 2009 at 03:22:22PM +1000, Gavin wrote:
Mmm maybe or maybe just an admin flaw?
I'm not an rdiff-backup developer mind just a user.

I think you might find a few bits of software that crash if they run out
of hard drive space.
There are other alert programs that alarm when drive space is getting
low.

Sure it would be nice if rdiff-backup could recover and save one when
this happens and it
does happen. There was some discussion on list some time back about
being able to specify
temp space so that rdiff-backup could perform at least a roll back.

Another option is to have rdiff-backup look for a certain amount of free
space (configurable) and fail if its not available

Alex

Cheers
Gavin

[snip]


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Ok, sorry, i might have been a bit harsh...
No, what i don't understand, really, is why rdiff-backup needs free
space
to clean up old snapshots: no it doesn't, my patch goes to show that if
you
treat the cleanup as a read-only operation, it will go through smoothly:
it
*doesn't* need any free space, the only thing that needed free space for
the cleanup was creating a useless temporary file.

Neither do I, and neither several Debian users having reported bug reports
at Debian BTS I also reported here some time ago.



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Alex Samad wrote: On Mon, Dec 07, 2009 at 03:22:22PM +1000, Gavin wrote:
Mmm maybe or maybe just an admin flaw?
I'm not an rdiff-backup developer mind just a user.

I think you might find a few bits of software that crash if they run out
of hard drive space.
There are other alert programs that alarm when drive space is getting low.

Sure it would be nice if rdiff-backup could recover and save one when
this happens and it
does happen. There was some discussion on list some time back about
being able to specify
temp space so that rdiff-backup could perform at least a roll back.

Another option is to have rdiff-backup look for a certain amount of free
space (configurable) and fail if its not available

Alex
Yes one could certainly put this in the wrapper script that is calling rdiff-backup.
Not sure how easily rdiff-backup could do this in a cross platform/enviroment way.

Cheers
Gavin