Backup Central

Hi,
I've been looking at using rdiff-backup to keep backups of
some non-critical servers, and come across an odd problem. Trawling the
mailing lists/google seems to have come up blank.

I'm backing up from a Linux machine (2.6.1 kernel, ext3fs) to a Solaris
9 host (ufs).

Both hosts are using rdiff-backup 0.12.6.

Commandline used is:
rdiff-backup --exclude /u1/backups --exclude /u1/music --exclude /mnt
--exclude /dev --exclude /proc / backup::/u1/backup/kitten/

"backup" is an SSH host alias, and is configured to log in using ssh
keys.

The initial backup runs ok, and looks fine. Later backups run and sync
up large files ok, but any small (mostly < 1kb) files (noticeably
dotfiles and configuration files) seem to fail on subsequent backups
with a mix of error 100 and 103.

An example of the error messages generated:

librsync: ERROR: (rs_file_copy_cb) seek failed: Invalid argument
librsync: ERROR: (rs_job_complete) patch job failed: IO error
UpdateError u1/home/bcc/.irssi/config librsync error 100 while in patch
cycle
librsync: ERROR: (rs_file_copy_cb) seek failed: Invalid argument
librsync: ERROR: (rs_job_complete) patch job failed: IO error
UpdateError u1/home/bcc/.mutt_certificates librsync error 100 while in
patch cycle
librsync: ERROR: (rs_file_copy_cb) seek failed: Invalid argument
librsync: ERROR: (rs_job_complete) patch job failed: IO error
UpdateError u1/home/bcc/.mysql_history librsync error 100 while in patch
cycle
librsync: ERROR: (rs_file_copy_cb) unexpected eof on fd9
librsync: ERROR: (rs_job_complete) patch job failed: unexpected end of
input UpdateError u1/home/bcc/.ssh/known_hosts librsync error 103 while
in patch cycle
librsync: ERROR: (rs_file_copy_cb) unexpected eof on fd9
librsync: ERROR: (rs_job_complete) patch job failed: unexpected end of
input UpdateError u1/home/bcc/.viminfo librsync error 103 while in patch
cycle
librsync: ERROR: (rs_file_copy_cb) seek failed: Invalid argument
librsync: ERROR: (rs_job_complete) patch job failed: IO error
UpdateError u1/home/bcc/.xfce4/settings/gtk.xml librsync error 100 while
in patch cycle
librsync: ERROR: (rs_file_copy_cb) unexpected eof on fd9
librsync: ERROR: (rs_job_complete) patch job failed: unexpected end of
input UpdateError u1/home/bcc/.xfce4/xfce4rc librsync error 103 while in
patch cycle
librsync: ERROR: (rs_file_copy_cb) unexpected eof on fd9
librsync: ERROR: (rs_job_complete) patch job failed: unexpected end of
input UpdateError u1/home/bcc/.xfce4/xfce4rc.bak librsync error 103
while in patch cycle
librsync: ERROR: (rs_file_copy_cb) unexpected eof on fd9
librsync: ERROR: (rs_job_complete) patch job failed: unexpected end of
input UpdateError u1/home/bcc/.xfce4/xffm/xffm.runlist.2.dbh librsync
error 103 while in patch cycle

I'm rapidly running out of ideas short of trying a different backup
plan...

Any thoughts?

Ben
--
Library Computing Officer
Templeman Library, University of Kent
email: library-comp < at > kent.ac.uk phone: +44 1227 823621

On 13 Apr 2004, Ben Charlton <B.C.Charlton < at > kent.ac.uk> wrote:

librsync: ERROR: (rs_file_copy_cb) seek failed: Invalid argument
librsync: ERROR: (rs_job_complete) patch job failed: IO error
UpdateError u1/home/bcc/.irssi/config librsync error 100 while in patch
cycle

Maybe librsync on Solaris has a problem accessing large files? I seem
to remember it is easy to get Solaris into that state. Have a look on
the librsync SF bugtracker for ideas.

--
Martin

Ben Charlton <B.C.Charlton < at > kent.ac.uk> writes:
up large files ok, but any small (mostly < 1kb) files (noticeably
dotfiles and configuration files) seem to fail on subsequent backups
with a mix of error 100 and 103.

librsync: ERROR: (rs_file_copy_cb) unexpected eof on fd9
librsync: ERROR: (rs_job_complete) patch job failed: unexpected end of

If I had to take a guess, I'd say that the blocksize or minimum file
size on the two filesystems might be different, and the code doesn't
know how to deal.