From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Aug 4 17:44:44 2004 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id B154F16A4CE for ; Wed, 4 Aug 2004 17:44:44 +0000 (GMT) Received: from Shenton.org (23.ebbed1.client.atlantech.net [209.190.235.35]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with SMTP id A794643D5A for ; Wed, 4 Aug 2004 17:44:41 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from chris@Shenton.Org) Received: (qmail 46409 invoked by uid 1001); 4 Aug 2004 17:44:39 -0000 Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org References: <005501c479b5$6c0f4cc0$6401a8c0@Nomad> <20040804100300.3af0d4fb@bofh.spyderweb.com.au> From: Chris Shenton Date: Wed, 04 Aug 2004 13:44:39 -0400 In-Reply-To: <20040804100300.3af0d4fb@bofh.spyderweb.com.au> (Tim Aslat's message of "Wed, 4 Aug 2004 10:03:00 +0930") Message-ID: <868ycupzlk.fsf@PECTOPAH.shenton.org> User-Agent: Gnus/5.110003 (No Gnus v0.3) Emacs/21.3 (berkeley-unix) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Subject: Re: Remote backup hosting setup? X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 04 Aug 2004 17:44:44 -0000 Tim Aslat writes: > Try one of the multitude of rsync based scripts, you can even get some > very good incremental backups happening, I have been thinking about this for my own use. One problem with basic rsync is that if (say) I trash a critical file and don't notice it for a couple days, the (nightly) rsync will have overwritten the good version with the trashed version. So I've been thinking of having maybe 5 different copies at the destination and rsyncing to a different one each night so I have 5 different "backups" to go to -- just like in the days of tape. Something conceptually like: rsync -avR --delete / remote:/BACKUP/`expr $dayofyear % 5`/ Yeah, you need to store 5x copies of your client's data, but disk is cheap. It gives 'em 5 days to realize they've just hosed that critical file and you can be a hero for restoring it. Income potential. You might be able to achieve similar by rsyncing to a single destination directory and using FreeBSD-5.x's "snapshot" facility. Create a (read only) snapshot of the destination partition every night. it only costs you the amount of diskspace consumed by *changes* from the snapshot to the current data. Like a NetApp. Keep 5 snapshots around and get the same effect as the multiple rsync destinations in my example above. Haven't tried this but it seems appealing. Also, the original poster mentioned the source was windoze. If you google "rsync windows" you'll find help on installing ssh and rsync on a Windoze box so maybe you don't need UNIX at your client's firm. Check SAMBA for access to shares. Amanda used to have some hooks to backup 'doze shares to tapes, perhaps you could leverage their work.