|
Re: [BackupPC-users] Recommended transfer method for remote backups of win machines
2008-07-09 20:23:28
for remote windows hosts, you are probably best advised to either use just rsync via cygwin or deltacopy, or tunnel that over cygwins ssh or a seperate VPN connection.
for a remote backuppc server, what would you mirror back to? it wouldn't make much sense to mirror back to the 'primary' backuppc server as you wouldn't have access to the files via the web interface.
file count is the real killer with rsync. of you are backing up remote windowsXP or Vista laptops or even desktops, you will not really run into a file count issue and I doubt you will even use a whole lot of bandwidth. I do this now, and here is how:
I used to run just 1 backuppc server but have moved up to 2 full time backuppc servers plus some test equipment. the reason for the second server was so that I could have the default configuration of clients set to rsync and to wake up every 10 minutes. I have a number of laptops in the field that all connect back via VPN. Whenever they are online and they are in need of a backup, backuppc gets them on their statically assigned address on the VPN. I use compression on the vpn so I don't do it with rsync. I have backup jobs(rsync) QoS'd down so that the remote users dont even notice the backup going on.
For the number of files they have, rsync counts them all in about 10 seconds and for the number of files they actually change a normal backup is less than a minute though some users have some pretty heavy excel files they change regularly which will make their backup times spike.
Additionally, if they disconnect during the backup, they get a partial and the next backup will take even less time and backuppc automatically mixes in the partial and then discards it.
I run all nice server equipment which might be a little out of the norm as I see a lot of people recyle older hardware but it shouldnt matter a whole lot for regular laptop users.
I also run an exact copy of each backuppc server at a remote location and use "rsync -aH" to sync them up. The link is just 512Kb wide but the actual transfers take less than an hour for the main server that is currently syncing over 160GB of data. The file list for rsync takes about 1 hour to compute for a total backup time of something averaging at about 1h45m. I handle the laptop backup server simliar but I dont do a nightly sync, instead I sync every hour but put a bandwidth limit on the rsync during the day of 16KB/s. This is wrapped up in a shell script that checks to see if an rsync is currently running before starting so I dont have conflicts and also checks the time because I open up the connection to full speed after 6PM.
I have been doing the main server's sync for about 1 year without issue but the other server is only a few months old, but I still have not had any issues.
On Wed, Jul 9, 2008 at 3:24 PM, Les Mikesell < lesmikesell AT gmail DOT com> wrote:
dnk wrote:
>
> Well I am thinking of a dedicated OpenVPN connection between my lan
> and my data center.
>
> How do people find the backup times over an encrypted channel like that?
If you the same encryption method, iti will at least match ssh.
Anyway, once you have the initial copy, rsync will just be transferring
the changes.
> My other thought was to maybe install backuppc on a local server, then
> just rsync off to a remote server periodically.
The huge number of hardlinks in a backuppc archive limits the size that
rsync can handle.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sponsored by: SourceForge.net Community Choice Awards: VOTE NOW!
Studies have shown that voting for your favorite open source project,
along with a healthy diet, reduces your potential for chronic lameness
and boredom. Vote Now at http://www.sourceforge.net/community/cca08 _______________________________________________
BackupPC-users mailing list
BackupPC-users AT lists.sourceforge DOT net
List: https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/backuppc-users
Wiki: http://backuppc.wiki.sourceforge.net
Project: http://backuppc.sourceforge.net/
|
|
|
