I have read with interest various threads on this list concerning 
methods of how to back up a backuppc server to a remote file system over 
the internet. My impression from reading the threads is that there is no 
*good* way - that rsync is a poor choice if you have many hardlinks, and 
methods like copying a "snapshot"  of a block-level device are 
inefficient if only a relatively small proportion of the data changes. I 
have tried both methods, and am not satisfied with the performance and 
efficiency of either. In addition, BackupPC is not compatible with 
'cloud' storage systems - at least the ones I have looked at do not seem 
to support hardlinks.

As a Linux newbie, I have only a partial understanding of the technology 
underlying Linux and BackupPC, but I get the impression that the problem 
with a rsync-like solution is that processing hardlinks is very 
expensive in terms of cpu time and memory resources. This may be a 
stupid question, but, if hardlinks are the problem, has any thought been 
given to adding to BackupPC an option to use some form of database 
(text, SQL or otherwise) to associate hashes to files, instead? It seems 
to me that using hardlinks is in fact using that feature of the file 
system *as* a database, a use that does not appear to be optimal ... if 
I have misunderstood, please educate me :-)

Peter

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
OpenSolaris 2009.06 is a cutting edge operating system for enterprises 
looking to deploy the next generation of Solaris that includes the latest 
innovations from Sun and the OpenSource community. Download a copy and 
enjoy capabilities such as Networking, Storage and Virtualization. 
Go to: http://p.sf.net/sfu/opensolaris-get
_______________________________________________
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/