Backup Central

Hello All,

I am aware that this must be the nth time (n>100) that somebody writes about
rsnapshot and disk space used. Thus, I am the n+1th 'don't know how to
configure it properly' user of the tool. I apologize. The tool is valuable
and works fine and I'd like to continue to use it.

========================================
Here my question:
When you see this output on my console

$>cat /etc/redhat-release
Scientific Linux SL release 5.0 (Boron)
$>
$> uname -r
2.6.18-8.1.8.el5
$>
$> rsnapshot version
rsnapshot 1.3.0
$>
$> rsnapshot du
8.6G /mnt/usbHdd/Backups/rsnapshot_root/hourly.0/
8.6G /mnt/usbHdd/Backups/rsnapshot_root/hourly.1/
8.6G /mnt/usbHdd/Backups/rsnapshot_root/hourly.2/
8.6G /mnt/usbHdd/Backups/rsnapshot_root/hourly.3/
8.6G /mnt/usbHdd/Backups/rsnapshot_root/daily.0/
8.6G /mnt/usbHdd/Backups/rsnapshot_root/daily.1/
8.6G /mnt/usbHdd/Backups/rsnapshot_root/daily.2/
8.6G /mnt/usbHdd/Backups/rsnapshot_root/daily.3/
8.6G /mnt/usbHdd/Backups/rsnapshot_root/daily.4/
7.9G /mnt/usbHdd/Backups/rsnapshot_root/daily.5/
7.9G /mnt/usbHdd/Backups/rsnapshot_root/daily.6/
7.6G /mnt/usbHdd/Backups/rsnapshot_root/weekly.0/
101G total
$>
$>rsnapshot-diff /mnt/usbHdd/Backups/rsnapshot_root/hourly.0/
/mnt/usbHdd/Backups/rsnapshot_root/hourly.1 /
Comparing /mnt/usbHdd/Backups/rsnapshot_root/hourly.1/ to
/mnt/usbHdd/Backups/rsnapshot_root/hourly.0/
Between /mnt/usbHdd/Backups/rsnapshot_root/hourly.1/ and
/mnt/usbHdd/Backups/rsnapshot_root/hourly.0/:
14447 were added, taking 9078530704 bytes;
14447 were removed, saving 9078528533 bytes;
$>
$>

What am I doing wrong that rsnapshot doesn't generate hard links between the
different directories, but creates every time a new copy?

========================================
Here some config details:

$> crontab -e

outputs

0 */6 * * * /usr/bin/rsnapshot sync && /usr/bin/rsnapshot
hourly
30 23 * * * /usr/bin/rsnapshot daily
00 23 * * 7 /usr/bin/rsnapshot weekly
30 22 1 * * /usr/bin/rsnapshot monthly


and the essentials in /etc/rsnapshot.conf are

config_version 1.2
snapshot_root /mnt/usbHdd/Backups/rsnapshot_root/
no_create_root 1
interval hourly 4
interval daily 7
interval weekly 4
interval monthly 6
du_args -csh
link_dest 1
sync_first 1
#use_lazy_deletes 0

The GNU utils like df are installed.

Thanks for any help,
Andy


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On Sat, Oct 20, 2007 at 05:27:38PM +0200, Andreas Isenegger wrote:

$> rsnapshot du
8.6G /mnt/usbHdd/Backups/rsnapshot_root/hourly.0/
8.6G /mnt/usbHdd/Backups/rsnapshot_root/hourly.1/
...
101G total

$>rsnapshot-diff /mnt/usbHdd/Backups/rsnapshot_root/hourly.0/
/mnt/usbHdd/Backups/rsnapshot_root/hourly.1 /
Comparing /mnt/usbHdd/Backups/rsnapshot_root/hourly.1/ to
/mnt/usbHdd/Backups/rsnapshot_root/hourly.0/
Between /mnt/usbHdd/Backups/rsnapshot_root/hourly.1/ and
/mnt/usbHdd/Backups/rsnapshot_root/hourly.0/:
14447 were added, taking 9078530704 bytes;
14447 were removed, saving 9078528533 bytes;

What am I doing wrong that rsnapshot doesn't generate hard links between the
different directories, but creates every time a new copy?

Check what filesystem you're using. Most USB devices come pre-formatted
with a DOS filesystem, which doesn't support hard links.

--
David Cantrell | A machine for turning tea into grumpiness

What is the difference between hearing aliens through the
fillings in your teeth and hearing Jesus in your heart?

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Hello David,

I made this mistake initially (a few weeks ago). Meanwhile, I formatted the
USB drive with ext3 and still get the problems described.

$>mkfs.ext3 -c /dev/sda1
$>
:
$>mount
:
/dev/sda1 on /mnt/usbHdd type ext3 (rw)
:
$>

Regards,
Andy



On Sat, Oct 20, 2007 at 05:27:38PM +0200, Andreas Isenegger wrote:

$> rsnapshot du
8.6G /mnt/usbHdd/Backups/rsnapshot_root/hourly.0/
8.6G /mnt/usbHdd/Backups/rsnapshot_root/hourly.1/
...
101G total

$>rsnapshot-diff /mnt/usbHdd/Backups/rsnapshot_root/hourly.0/
/mnt/usbHdd/Backups/rsnapshot_root/hourly.1 /
Comparing /mnt/usbHdd/Backups/rsnapshot_root/hourly.1/ to
/mnt/usbHdd/Backups/rsnapshot_root/hourly.0/
Between /mnt/usbHdd/Backups/rsnapshot_root/hourly.1/ and
/mnt/usbHdd/Backups/rsnapshot_root/hourly.0/:
14447 were added, taking 9078530704 bytes;
14447 were removed, saving 9078528533 bytes;

What am I doing wrong that rsnapshot doesn't generate hard links between
the
different directories, but creates every time a new copy?

Check what filesystem you're using. Most USB devices come pre-formatted
with a DOS filesystem, which doesn't support hard links.

--
David Cantrell | A machine for turning tea into grumpiness


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Hello,

After more investigations I found out the following:

+ The problem has nothing to do with the external USB disk. It also shows up
when rsnapshot_root points to the internal IDE disk (e.g. /tmp/backups).
+ When setting the option 'sync_first' to 0, rsnapshot works as I understand
it should
+ When setting the option 'sync_first' to 1, the effect as described in my
previous e-mail shows up.

Now, to the last statement some more information.
+ I am aware that when I set 'sync_first' to 1, the hourly call to rsnapshot
is 'rsnapshot sync && rsnapshot hourly'
+ Given 2 directories to backup, e.g. /home and /srv/data/Share/Movies, in
this order, rsnapshot creates hard links in the rotated folders for the 1st
directory, but not for the 2nd one (i.e. makes full copies of all files of
the 2nd one). Here comes the command line output:

$>cd rsnapshot_root
$>ll -a
total 16
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Oct 26 17:46 .
drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 4096 Oct 25 18:20 ..
$>
$>rsnapshot -v sync
echo 11865 > /var/run/rsnapshot.pid
mkdir -m 0755 -p /mnt/usbHdd/Backups/rsnapshot_root_test/.sync/
/usr/bin/rsync -a --delete --numeric-ids --relative --delete-excluded /home
\
/mnt/usbHdd/Backups/rsnapshot_root_test/.sync/localhost/
/usr/bin/rsync -a --delete --numeric-ids --relative --delete-excluded \
/srv/data/Share/Movies \
/mnt/usbHdd/Backups/rsnapshot_root_test/.sync/localhost/
touch /mnt/usbHdd/Backups/rsnapshot_root_test/.sync/
rm -f /var/run/rsnapshot.pid
$># rsnapshot -v hourly
echo 11874 > /var/run/rsnapshot.pid
mv /mnt/usbHdd/Backups/rsnapshot_root_test/.sync/ \
/mnt/usbHdd/Backups/rsnapshot_root_test/hourly.0/
rm -f /var/run/rsnapshot.pid
$>ll -a
total 24
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 Oct 26 20:19 .
drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 4096 Oct 25 18:20 ..
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 Oct 26 20:19 hourly.0
$>rsnapshot du
23M /mnt/usbHdd/Backups/rsnapshot_root_test/hourly.0/
23M total
$>
$> --- So far so good ---
$>
$> --- 2nd iteration ---
$>
$>rsnapshot -v sync
echo 11879 > /var/run/rsnapshot.pid
mkdir -m 0755 -p /mnt/usbHdd/Backups/rsnapshot_root_test/.sync/
/usr/bin/rsync -a --delete --numeric-ids --relative --delete-excluded \
--link-dest=/mnt/usbHdd/Backups/rsnapshot_root_test/hourly.0/localhost/
\
/home /mnt/usbHdd/Backups/rsnapshot_root_test/.sync/localhost/
/usr/bin/rsync -a --delete --numeric-ids --relative --delete-excluded \
/srv/data/Share/Movies \
/mnt/usbHdd/Backups/rsnapshot_root_test/.sync/localhost/
touch /mnt/usbHdd/Backups/rsnapshot_root_test/.sync/
rm -f /var/run/rsnapshot.pid
$>rsnapshot -v hourly
echo 11888 > /var/run/rsnapshot.pid
mv /mnt/usbHdd/Backups/rsnapshot_root_test/hourly.0/ \
/mnt/usbHdd/Backups/rsnapshot_root_test/hourly.1/
mv /mnt/usbHdd/Backups/rsnapshot_root_test/.sync/ \
/mnt/usbHdd/Backups/rsnapshot_root_test/hourly.0/
rm -f /var/run/rsnapshot.pid
[root < at > p3lin1 rsnapshot_root_test]# rsnapshot du
23M /mnt/usbHdd/Backups/rsnapshot_root_test/hourly.0/
19M /mnt/usbHdd/Backups/rsnapshot_root_test/hourly.1/
41M total
$>

As one can see in the 2nd iteration in the call to 'rsnapshot -v sync', only
in the first call to rsync the option --link-dest=... is set. In the second
call it isn't. As a result, rsync creates copies instead of hard links.

Has anybody an idea why rsnapshot does this or seen this before?

For the time being, I use rsnapshot with the option sync_first set to 0.

Thanks for any help,
Andy


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