[Lancaster] file server with backups - advice wanted

Mon Feb 1 20:13:44 UTC 2010

Hi Andy,

That makes sense. I must admit that I never looked into something like bacula because we are responsible for our own backups. but I think in itself you can come a good way rsync-based stuff.

Just to sketch a scenario (if it does not apply you can ignore it, it largely depends on network setup anyway). Let's assume you are running a file server based on linux, which shares a number of folders as network drives to windows machines using samba. I will assume that the users on windows machines store their files on the samba share and this needs to be backed up.

You can then use rsync to copy the contents of the shared drives on the file server to another physical drive or even another server. If you would then share the backups as samba shares again, the windows users can mount a backup drive that contains all their files from, say, a day ago. If you want to take it a step further, you can even make multiple backups (one day ago, two days ago, one week ago, etc.). I know that for example back in time uses rsync to literally only copy the files, no encrypting or anything else. The only thing you have to make sure of is that the folder names are clear. Maybe something like:

- Backup <DATE 1>
	- My Documents
	- etc...
- Backup <DATE 2>
	- My Documents
	- etc...

If I remember my windows correctly, you include specific files in the folder to make sure the folder appears differently when opened in windows explorer. I am thinking of a watermark that says "backup drive", or something similar. Maybe this gives you some ideas to avoid setting up a large scale solution?

Cheers,
Joost

andy baxter wrote:
> Hi joost,
> 
> Thanks for the info. I think what I really want is a client server 
> system with a server that can run on the file server, and (ideally) a 
> windows client that people in the office can use for pulling files out 
> of backup themselves rather than having to ask me. Back in time looks 
> good for a single machine, but I want something that will work over a 
> network.
> 
> I'm looking at projects like bacula and amanda, but wondering if they 
> are a bit over specified - bacula in particular looks positively baroque 
> in its complexity.
> 
> cheers,
> 
> andy
> 
> Joost Noppen wrote:
>> Hi Andy,
>>
>> Can't answer all of your questions, but at least some pointers on the 
>> backup clients. There are a number of options you might want to look at:
>>
>> - back in time
>> - time vault
>> - simple backup
>>
>> All these work client side, but you can automate their execution using 
>> cron. I myself use back in time which is akin to Apple's time machine, 
>> with a very usable graphical front-end. This is tied to a shell script 
>> that triggers a backup once a day to an external hard drive. In the 
>> end, these tools really all build on rsync to do their magic. You even 
>> get incremental backup with it.
>>
>> I imagine you can run this as long as the backup server has access to 
>> the drives where the files are stored (read access should suffice). 
>> Otherwise you might want to look at peter's backup, a gzip based 
>> program for Windows. The people would have to trigger the backup 
>> themselves though.
>>
>> Bit of text this,if you have questions just let me know.
>>
>> Cheers,
>> Joost
>>
>> ----- Reply message -----
>> From: "andy baxter" <andy at earthsong.free-online.co.uk>
>> Date: Mon, Feb 1, 2010 18:15
>> Subject: [Lancaster] file server with backups - advice wanted
>> To: "Lancaster Linux User Group" <lancaster at mailman.lug.org.uk>
>>
>> Hi all,
>>
>> The boss at the place I'm working has asked me to look into setting up a
>> linux based file server for them, with a proper backup schedule. There
>> are a bit over half a dozen employees at the moment, but this may
>> increase in the future.
>>
>> I haven't done anything like this before, so if anyone can answer any of
>> the following questions, it would be a big help:
>> - Most of the machines use windows, so I'll be using samba. How well
>> does this work in practice with a network of windows machines?
>> - Any advice on what hardware specs would be good for a proper server
>> machine? In particular, is it necessary to use (hardware or software) 
>> RAID?
>> - Does anyone know any (ideally local) companies that provide off site
>> backup services which will work with linux? We don't need anything that
>> complex - a linux file server with ssh / sftp would be enough I think.
>> - What's a good backup tool to use? It should be able to deal with the
>> off site backup service we are using.
>>
>> The data to be backed up will be a mixture of office documents (on the
>> samba server), and code (in a subversion repository).
>>
>> thanks,
>>
>> andy
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Lancaster mailing list
>> Lancaster at mailman.lug.org.uk
>> https://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/lancaster
>>
>>
> 
> 

-- 
____________________________________________

Joost Noppen
Computing Department
InfoLab21
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Lancaster University
Lancaster LA1 4WA UK

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Mail:   j.noppen at comp.lancs.ac.uk
Skype:  joost.noppen
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