BackupPC-users

Re: [BackupPC-users] Feature Requests and such?

2009-08-17 11:01:22
Subject: Re: [BackupPC-users] Feature Requests and such?
From: "Clint Alexander" <clint AT cdalexander DOT net>
To: "General list for user discussion, questions and support" <backuppc-users AT lists.sourceforge DOT net>
Date: Mon, 17 Aug 2009 09:10:20 -0400
> I may be out of line here, but I think you might have a config similar
> to this:

I'm not the best when it comes to being completely educated in the way 
backups systems work. My area of expertise can be better defined as a "Jack 
of All" and master of few. But, I took some time to study the different ways 
some people used BackupPC and I was particularly attracted to the 'Tower of 
Hanoi' rotation (that has been mentioned on this list a few times), with a 
blackout period of hourBegin: 6 and hourEnd: 1. I adjusted the configuration 
for the 4 servers I need backed up within the same hour to:  hourBegin: 4 
and hourBegin: 3

I have the system waking up every 30 minutes so I assumed it would catch 
this in the 30 minute mark, instead of every hour:
1, 1.5, 2, 2.5, 3, 3.5, 4, 4.5, 5, 5.5, 6, 6.5 ... and so on

You're idea is worthy enough to test though, it's obviously not working the 
way I have it.

I tested the idea of using Cron for incrementals:
BackupPC/bin/BackupPC_serverMesg backup <ip>  <host> <user> <pass> 0

I used 0 for incremental, but for some strange reason -- it wanted to 
perform a full backup even though the last backup done yesterday was a full 
(go figure).

But the real question is: If I want to run these 4 backups from Cron, I 
should turn the BackupsDisabled to 1, right?
This should prevent another backup from running needlessly, but does this 
interfere with a command being run from Cron?

The documentation says it will allow any CGI requests, but it doesn't say 
anything about commands at the console. I ask because I had BackupsDisabled 
set to 1 on these 4 servers and none of them had run last night from Cron. I 
turned one of the hosts back on this morning and tried to run it from 
console  -- it ended up running; as a full and not incremental, but it ran 
never-the-less.

So it looks like BackupsDisabled has to be set to 0 and setup Blackout times 
between 6am and 5am so that it doesn't run (since it already performed a 
backup)?


Oh yea (switching topics) -- my original post was actually trying to find 
*the* place to post feature requests -- I guess this list is it, huh?


Thanks to everyone for your input!

//Clint



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Adam Goryachev" <mailinglists AT websitemanagers.com DOT au>
To: "General list for user discussion,questions and support" 
<backuppc-users AT lists.sourceforge DOT net>
Sent: Sunday, August 16, 2009 11:15 PM
Subject: Re: [BackupPC-users] Feature Requests and such?


> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> Hash: SHA1
>
> Clint Alexander wrote:
>> Hi BackupPC List Members (and owners)..
>>
>> One thing that has frustrated the heck out of me is the lack of finding
>> 1) I want to see *when* a backup is going to run. I've been making
>> changes to the overall schedule of the system, but it seems like all the
>> backups run in the last hour of the non-blackout times. I have 4
>> particular servers (SQL Cluster Nodes) that need to be backed up within
>> the same hour. I setup the blackout of these particular servers FROM 4am
>> TO 3am in hopes to get them done between 3-4am. But only one of them was
>> fired within that hour, the rest 2 hours later. So -- we should be able
>> to see what our current settings will do and when it will do it. I'm
>> sure there is a configuration that would work for this that I can't
>> figure out -- but it doesn't make the feature any less important :)
>
> I may be out of line here, but I think you might have a config similar
> to this:
>
> $Conf{FullPeriod} = 6.97;
> $Conf{IncrPeriod} = 0.97;
> $Conf{BlackoutPeriods} = [
>  {
>    'hourBegin' => '4'
>    'hourEnd' => '3',
>    'weekDays' => [
>      '1',
>      '2',
>      '3',
>      '4',
>      '5',
>      '6',
>      '7'
>    ],
>  }
> ];
>
> Now, if your backups are done one at a time, and each takes 20 minutes
> (probably they take longer?), then your first backup will happen at 3am,
> the second will happen at 3:20, third at 3:40 and fourth at 4am,
> finishing at 4:20am.
>
> This will repeat each day...
> However, possibly when backuppc wakes up at 3am, it doesn't queue any of
> the backups because you are still inside the blackout time (3am). You
> might try modifying the hourend to 2.99 or similar.
>
> Also, if your backups take 90 minutes each, then you get this:
> Backup 1 at 3am
> Backup 2 at 4:30
> Backup 3 at 6
> Backup 4 at 7:30
> All finished at 9am
>
> Now, the next day, the first backup won't start until 3am + 90min (4:30)
> + 0.97 * 24 = 3:47am or actually the first wakeup period after that
> which is probably 4am.
>
> Even increasing the number of concurrent backups won't solve this
> "slipping".
>
> What I tend to do is set:
> IncrPeriod = 0.8 (or even 0.6)
> FullPeriod = 6.8 (or 6.6)
> As long as the blackout period covers more than 12 hours per day, you
> should get what you want (a backup starting as close as possible to the
> beginning of your non blackout window, and a backup every non-blackout
> window (daily).
>
> Sorry, that is all a bit longer than intended, but hopefully it is
> helpful to you or someone else. If I'm wrong in my interpretation of how
> things work in backuppc, feel free to educate me, it just might be
> helpful :)
>
> Regards,
> Adam
>
> - --
> Adam Goryachev
> Website Managers
> www.websitemanagers.com.au
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