BackupPC-users

[BackupPC-users] Backing up little by little or throttling the backup?

2011-04-12 19:09:06
Subject: [BackupPC-users] Backing up little by little or throttling the backup?
From: Jake Wilson <jake.wilson AT answeron DOT com>
To: "General list for user discussion, questions and support" <backuppc-users AT lists.sourceforge DOT net>
Date: Tue, 12 Apr 2011 17:06:55 -0600
We have a production server on the network with several terabytes of data that needs to be backed up onto our BackupPC server.  The problem is that the production server is in use most of the day.  There is a lot of normal network traffic going in and out.

I'm wondering what options there are for backing up the production server in a way that will hinder the performance and network access as little as possible.  I'm not too worried about the incremental backups because those wont take that long and will happen at night.  But the first, initial big full backup is going to take quite a while and I don't want the production server borderline-unresponsive during the backup process. 

Here are some options I've been thinking about:
  • Backing up / but have most of the large directories and subdirectories excluded and slowly "unexclude" them one by one in-between full backups.
  • rsync bitrate limit throttling?
  • Instead of backing up /, specify specific big directories one at a time, adding more and more in-between full backups.
Anyone have any ideas or direction for this?  Or are there any built-in config options for throttling the backup process that I'm unaware of?

Jake Wilson
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