[Lancaster] file server with backups - advice wanted

[andy baxter]

Thanks martyn. This looks really neat. Will maybe try it out.

andy

Martyn Welch wrote:
> I set up a back up system whilst still at Lancs Uni, based on this
> website:
>
> http://www.mikerubel.org/computers/rsync_snapshots/
>
> Basically:
>
> I had a server used as a file server - it was this that was backed up. It
> was NFS and Samba mountable, the samba was tied into the domain controller
> so that users we authenticated through that.
>
> A second machine used rsync as described in the above link to do rolling
> backups of the home folders. These were dated and (from memory) backups we
> kept for the last 7 days, then one backup a week was kept for a few months
> then monthly backups for a year. The process above describes how this can
> be achieved without (hopefully) needing N-times the size of the home
> folders.
>
> The directories of backups were then mounted back to the file server as
> read-only so that users could access there own historical home directories.
>
> At the time I couldn't find anything else so simple and efficient.
>
> Hope that helps,
>
> Martyn
>
> On Mon, 01 Feb 2010 19:28:21 +0000, andy baxter
> <andy at earthsong.free-online.co.uk> 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
>>>
>>>
>>>       
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>
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