> Morning,
>
> I have just started to play with backuppc and am making good strides -
local
> (SMB) backups are working fine and I am just about to have a look at
rsync-based backups from a couple of local Linux servers before moving
on to
> SMB/rsync via SSH and some VPNs.
>
> I am diligently RTFM-ing, supplemented with the stuff found via Google -
which is a bit overwhelming, so I'd appreciate some short cuts from
anyone with a bit more real-world experience if possible:
>
> 1) I presume(?) SMB-based backups cannot do block-difference-level
copies like rsync? We have a number of remote (over VPN) Windows servers
and I'd like to backup their MSSQL database dumps - they are around
700MB at the moment and I presume via SMB the whole lot will get
transferred every time?

You are correct sir; though depending on the file structure, some files
pretty much get transferred in their entirety (I'm looking at you, windows
registry.)

> 2) I have seen a number of guides for cwrsync on Windows-based PCs. Any
votes on the best one and the best place to read up on this? I presume
that
> since we'd be backing up via VPN, we could run rsync directly rather
than via an SSH tunnel?

You are correct about obviating ssh with a VPN.  cwrsync does  have a
filename-length limitation, but otherwise, I've found it perfectly useful.
 The biggest problem most people have when getting it working is personal
firewalls.

Well, that, and open files, which is addressed here:
http://www.goodjobsucking.com/?p=62

> 3) As the remote sites are linked via VPN, I could mount the remote
shares to the local backup server and use rsync 'directly' - any
pros/cons doing things this way (speed, reliability etc?), or is an
rsync server on the remote servers a better approach?

Local rsync over remote smb means that pretty much every file has to be
read over the WAN in its entirety, whether it has been backed up or not. 
So I guess that's a con.

> 4) I am running the backup server on CentOS 5.3 and installed backuppc from
> the Centos RPM. Ideally I'd like to run the app as the normal 'apache' user
> - I read up on a few generic notes about doing this and got to a point
where
> backuppc wouldn't start properly as it couldn't create the LOG file. I then
> went round in circles looking at file permissions before putting things
back
> the way they were in order to do some more learning. Is there a
> simple-to-follow guide for setting up backuppc to not use mod_perl - I have
> read the docs but am still not getting there.

I can't help you there.



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