Backup Central

Hello,

I'm looking for a backup program which is something like InfiniSAN
Disk2Disk, a discontinuted and propietary product lacking technical
support. I first posted my request to alt.backup-software but was met
with resounding silence. (http://tinyurl.com/3aaxl (goes to google
groups; read for requirements))

Any of you folks have suggestions? Or could point to me a forum where I
might find some answers?


thanks in advance,
forward at will,


--
matt wilkie
--------------------------------------------
Geographic Information,
Information Management and Technology,
Yukon Department of Environment
10 Burns Road * Whitehorse, Yukon * Y1A 4Y9
867-667-8133 Tel * 867-393-7003 Fax
--------------------------------------------

Well since you did ask here... doesn't rdiff-backup work for windows?
:-)

-- John

On Thu, Feb 19, 2004 at 02:24:01PM -0800, Matt Wilkie wrote:
Hello,

I'm looking for a backup program which is something like InfiniSAN
Disk2Disk, a discontinuted and propietary product lacking technical
support. I first posted my request to alt.backup-software but was met
with resounding silence. (http://tinyurl.com/3aaxl (goes to google
groups; read for requirements))

Any of you folks have suggestions? Or could point to me a forum where I
might find some answers?


thanks in advance,
forward at will,


--
matt wilkie
--------------------------------------------
Geographic Information,
Information Management and Technology,
Yukon Department of Environment
10 Burns Road * Whitehorse, Yukon * Y1A 4Y9
867-667-8133 Tel * 867-393-7003 Fax
--------------------------------------------





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

John Goerzen wrote:

Well since you did ask here... doesn't rdiff-backup work for windows?

The FAQ[0] indicates that it is possible to run rdiff-backup under
windows but says only "to a point", indicating a problem with
timestamps, which I would think are rather important.

[0] http://rdiff-backup.stanford.edu/FAQ.html#windows

I do like the description and feature list of rdiff-backup. There is
enough overlap with Infinifsan D2D that I wonder if there are parts of
rdiff under the hood.

regards,

--
matt wilkie
--------------------------------------------
Geographic Information,
Information Management and Technology,
Yukon Department of Environment
10 Burns Road * Whitehorse, Yukon * Y1A 4Y9
867-667-8133 Tel * 867-393-7003 Fax
--------------------------------------------

On Thu, Feb 19, 2004 at 03:14:41PM -0800, Matt Wilkie wrote:
John Goerzen wrote:

Well since you did ask here... doesn't rdiff-backup work for windows?

The FAQ[0] indicates that it is possible to run rdiff-backup under
windows but says only "to a point", indicating a problem with
timestamps, which I would think are rather important.

[0] http://rdiff-backup.stanford.edu/FAQ.html#windows

I do like the description and feature list of rdiff-backup. There is
enough overlap with Infinifsan D2D that I wonder if there are parts of
rdiff under the hood.

That FAQ entry is rather dated. I know I've seen rdiff-backup versions
that work around that timestamp problem.

-- John

On Thu, 2004-02-19 at 18:40, John Goerzen wrote:
On Thu, Feb 19, 2004 at 03:14:41PM -0800, Matt Wilkie wrote:
John Goerzen wrote:

Well since you did ask here... doesn't rdiff-backup work for windows?

The FAQ[0] indicates that it is possible to run rdiff-backup under
windows but says only "to a point", indicating a problem with
timestamps, which I would think are rather important.

[0] http://rdiff-backup.stanford.edu/FAQ.html#windows

I do like the description and feature list of rdiff-backup. There is
enough overlap with Infinifsan D2D that I wonder if there are parts of
rdiff under the hood.

That FAQ entry is rather dated. I know I've seen rdiff-backup versions
that work around that timestamp problem.

-- John
I think the only fundamental problem is with ACLs, and that only with
the unstable version. (ie. The stable version doesn't handle ACLs at
all.)

Check for posts from David Kempe. He has even wrapped an installer
around rdiff-backup.

(I have not tried it yet, but I keep meaning to.)

Details:
rdiff-backup for windows uses the cygwin dll (included in the
installer).

The cygwin dll maps NT ACLs to posix ACLs, and in the process drops a
few. I don't think they are the commonly used ones.


Greg
--
Greg Freemyer

Greg Freemyer said:
I think the only fundamental problem is with ACLs, and that only
with the unstable version. (ie. The stable version doesn't handle
ACLs at all.)

No, the most fundamental problem is that rdiff-backup on cygwin can't
restore natively to a windows filesystem.

Would you please elaborate on this? Does this mean that data is
corrupted (the contents of files are changed)? Or (merely) that file
integrity is maintained but metadata like security permissions, owner,
etc. are not? The first is completely unacceptable while the latter
could be worked around.

We wrote a web interface to get around it and it works quite well.
Their may be some other way of making rdiff-backup restore on
windows, but I haven't had the time to fix that yet.

Is this case of you know what to do but haven't had the time/interest,
or that the solution is not known while you are confident it is there,
or that you just don't know yet?

Check for posts from David Kempe. He has even wrapped an installer
around rdiff-backup.

http://sol1.net/~dave/backup/

thank you.

btw, given the poster's original requirements - they are pretty damn
steep.
...
rdiff-backup on windows is great for windows -> linux backups atm.
You might be able to make it work for you, but I don't think its what
your after. In fact I doubt there is an opensource product like it.

Yeah, I know, I asked for the world. One never knows what's available
without asking though. I've been pleasantly surprised before. :)


--
matt wilkie
--------------------------------------------
Geographic Information,
Information Management and Technology,
Yukon Department of Environment
10 Burns Road * Whitehorse, Yukon * Y1A 4Y9
867-667-8133 Tel * 867-393-7003 Fax
--------------------------------------------

Matt Wilkie wrote:

Would you please elaborate on this? Does this mean that data is
corrupted (the contents of files are changed)? Or (merely) that file
integrity is maintained but metadata like security permissions, owner,
etc. are not? The first is completely unacceptable while the latter
could be worked around.


metadata aside (which I don't really care about) data is much more
important - rdiff-backup on cygwin can do --list-increments, ie can
output stuff, but then you try and do a --restore or --compare, it
complains about metadata not existing and exits. So there is some bug in
the admittedly unstable series that prevents it writing back to the file
system. 0.12.5 doesn't have this problem. tho 0.12.5 doesn't have any fs
detection features, which are pretty useful when it comes to disabling
fsyncs. so 0.12.5 works, but crashes after it tries to fsync things.



Their may be some other way of making rdiff-backup restore on
windows, but I haven't had the time to fix that yet.


Is this case of you know what to do but haven't had the time/interest,
or that the solution is not known while you are confident it is there,
or that you just don't know yet?

The solution is out there somewhere - I haven't taken apart the code,
and the guy I had working on it go distracted by the web interface. The
web interface is now finished, but its for a client so until the client
permits us to open a part of it, we can't release any of it.
it would probably take a skilled python programmer with access to a
windows machine and a copy of my package only a day or two of debugging
to figure it out.


http://sol1.net/~dave/backup/


thank you.


please let me know how you go with that package. I have had very little
feedback.

dave

Anybody familiar with both bacula and rdiff-backup who could talk about
how they compare?

thanks,

--
matt wilkie
--------------------------------------------
Geographic Information,
Information Management and Technology,
Yukon Department of Environment
10 Burns Road * Whitehorse, Yukon * Y1A 4Y9
867-667-8133 Tel * 867-393-7003 Fax
--------------------------------------------