Re: [BackupPC-users] Can $Conf{DumpPreUserCmd} and $Conf{DumpPost UserCm

Peter, thank you for pointing us to winexe - it looks like this is what we would want but we are unable to implement right now due to compatibility issues according to our linux administrator.

Windows NT doesn't have "shadow" capability, so we'll wait 'til we can use winexe.

Jess

From: Peter Walter [mailto:pwalter AT itlsys DOT com]
Sent: Sunday, March 08, 2009 6:16 PM
To: General list for user discussion, questions and support
Subject: Re: [BackupPC-users] Can $Conf{DumpPreUserCmd} and $Conf{DumpPostUserCmd} be used to stop and start Exchange Server 5.5 on a Windows NT 4.0 Server as part of a BackupPC job?

Jessie,

It is possible to issue the commands from Linux to stop / start Exchange as you require if you use a third-party utility.
See http://eol.ovh.org/winexe/index.php for the details.
You may also be able to use the utility and back up Exchange without stopping the Exchange server *at all* by using the "shadow copy" feature of Windows. See http://www.goodjobsucking.com/?p=62 for an example of such an implementation.

Note: the version of winexe at the link above requires a glibc version of 2.9 or greater. An alternate version which supports a glibc version of 2.3.4 or later can be found at http://eol.ovh.org/winexe/winexe-static-081123-glibc-2.3.4.bz2 , but I haven't tested it completely - your mileage may vary.

Regards,
Peter

Jessie M. Bunker-Maxwell wrote:

We are just beginning to use BackupPC running on a Debian Linux server to backup our Exchange Server 5.5 databases via rsyncd running on the Windows NT 4.0 server where Exchange is installed.

Currently, we have bat files scheduled to run on our Windows NT 4.0 Exchange Server to stop Exchange services before the BackupPC job runs and start Exchange services afterwards. But this means we're estimating the length of time needed for the backups and scheduling these jobs with a safe margin in either direction.

I am concerned that: 1) we are leaving our Exchange database down longer than necessary; and 2) if something goes wrong and the procedures that stop or start the Exchange database run while BackupPC has the Exchange files open for backup, we may corrupt our Exchange data (am I being paranoid here?).

It would be nice if the BackupPC job itself could issue the "net stop" and "net start" commands and I'm assuming I would use the $Conf{DumpPreUserCmd} and $Conf{DumpPostUserCmd} but I don't understand from the documentation how this would be done if you're issuing commands to a Windows server. Maybe this is not possible?

Can someone tell me if/how I could use $Conf{DumpPreUserCmd} and $Conf{DumpPostUserCmd} to remotely stop and start Exchange?

Does anyone know if there is any risk around attempting to stop or start the Exchange services while BackupPC has the files open for backup?

Thanks much.

Jess

Jessie M. Bunker-Maxwell
Network Access Services
Santa Cruz Public Library
224 Church St.
Santa Cruz, CA 95060
v: 831-420-5764
f: 831-459-7936
e: jessb AT santacruzpl DOT org

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Re: [BackupPC-users] Can $Conf{DumpPreUserCmd} and $Conf{DumpPost UserCmd} be used to stop and start Exchange Server 5.5 on a Windows NT 4. 0 Server as part of a BackupPC job?