From owner-freebsd-hackers Fri Dec 13 2:43:52 2002 Delivered-To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 5409237B416 for ; Fri, 13 Dec 2002 02:43:47 -0800 (PST) Received: from bran.mc.mpls.visi.com (bran.mc.mpls.visi.com [208.42.156.103]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id C1BBD43ED1 for ; Fri, 13 Dec 2002 02:43:46 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from hawkeyd@visi.com) Received: from sheol.localdomain (hawkeyd-fw.dsl.visi.com [208.42.101.193]) by bran.mc.mpls.visi.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id EBE7B4C5D; Fri, 13 Dec 2002 04:43:45 -0600 (CST) Received: (from hawkeyd@localhost) by sheol.localdomain (8.11.6/8.11.6) id gBDAhjM56880; Fri, 13 Dec 2002 04:43:45 -0600 (CST) (envelope-from hawkeyd) Date: Fri, 13 Dec 2002 04:43:45 -0600 (CST) Message-Id: <200212131043.gBDAhjM56880@sheol.localdomain> Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Newsreader: knews 1.0c.0 Reply-To: hawkeyd@visi.com Organization: if (!FIFO) if (!LIFO) break; References: <20021213052738.T5723-100000_extortion.peterh.dropbear.id.au@ns.sol.net> <20021213082019.0A66B43EDC_mx1.FreeBSD.org@ns.sol.net> In-Reply-To: <20021213082019.0A66B43EDC_mx1.FreeBSD.org@ns.sol.net> From: hawkeyd@visi.com (D J Hawkey Jr) Subject: Re: network backup X-Original-Newsgroups: sol.lists.freebsd.hackers,sol.lists.freebsd.isp To: simon@optinet.com, freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Sender: owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk List-ID: List-Archive: (Web Archive) List-Help: (List Instructions) List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG In article <20021213082019.0A66B43EDC_mx1.FreeBSD.org@ns.sol.net>, simon@optinet.com writes: > > rsync is nice, but it can't (afaik) compress data being synced on the fly to > save disk space :-( Is there anything out there which works like rsync and > can compress on the fly to space disk space? having 100GB of text files > compressed can save quite a few gigs. You'll want to back up 100Gb the first time, and perhaps at some interval thereafter, but perform incremental backups thereafter or in-between? I set up something like you describe a while back. What I did was to have scripts at the backed-up machine (client) tar and gzip files to an archive named with a date/time stamp, and the backing-up machine (server) rsync that archive. The client scripts also deleted local archives by age. The server then wrote the accumulated archives from several clients to tape (a six-cartridge changer), and also deleted archives by age. Both the client and server mailed me activity results every morning. This saves disk space on the server, but requires more space on the client. The upshot though, was a client-side archive as well as a server-side archive; if the transfer blew up, or a restoration is required, a local archive was always present. To state the obvious: The archives on both sides should reside on their own media (i.e., a different HDD), and should a restoration be required, enough disk space for both the compressed and uncompressed tarball may be required. There are also "coordination" issues, but they are easily dealt with. There are network backup programs Out There(tm) that are probably more efficient, but the ones I checked out wrote image-oriented archives, while the company wanted file-oriented archives (this might have changed since then). BTW, this thread probably belongs in freebsd-questions. HTH, Dave -- Windows: "Where do you want to go today?" Linux: "Where do you want to go tomorrow?" FreeBSD: "Are you guys coming, or what?" To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-hackers" in the body of the message