From owner-freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Oct 30 01:51:55 2008 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 8C2481065670 for ; Thu, 30 Oct 2008 01:51:55 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from andrew@modulus.org) Received: from email.octopus.com.au (host-122-100-2-232.octopus.com.au [122.100.2.232]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 487D08FC13 for ; Thu, 30 Oct 2008 01:51:54 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from andrew@modulus.org) Received: by email.octopus.com.au (Postfix, from userid 1002) id 6AA0217E4E; Thu, 30 Oct 2008 12:51:52 +1100 (EST) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.2.3 (2007-08-08) on email.octopus.com.au X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.3 required=10.0 tests=ALL_TRUSTED, DNS_FROM_SECURITYSAGE autolearn=no version=3.2.3 Received: from [10.1.50.60] (ppp121-44-74-189.lns10.syd6.internode.on.net [121.44.74.189]) (using TLSv1 with cipher DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) (Authenticated sender: admin@email.octopus.com.au) by email.octopus.com.au (Postfix) with ESMTP id 1938A17942; Thu, 30 Oct 2008 12:51:48 +1100 (EST) Message-ID: <490912CC.6000406@modulus.org> Date: Thu, 30 Oct 2008 12:50:04 +1100 From: Andrew Snow User-Agent: Thunderbird 2.0.0.14 (X11/20080523) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org, clint.olsen@gmail.com References: <20081029231926.GA35188@0lsen.net> <490907AC.5070303@freebsd.org> In-Reply-To: <490907AC.5070303@freebsd.org> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: Subject: Re: Anyone used rsync scriptology for incremental backup? X-BeenThere: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Production branch of FreeBSD source code List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 30 Oct 2008 01:51:55 -0000 I've written a backup system using rsync's ability to generate "diff" files using batch file mode. It works like this: 1. We take a backup of the live system and store that 2. We generate a diff batch file against an older copy 3. We update the older copy to be identical to the current copy In this way, each day we generate a batch file that lets us step back one day. The diffs themselves, compressed with gzip, and extremely space efficient. We can step back potentially hundreds of days, though it seems to throw errors sometimes when backing up Windows boxes, which I haven't tracked down yet. But to be honest, soon you can save yourself a lot of hassle by simply using ZFS and taking snapshots. It'll be faster, and with compression very space efficient. - Andrew