Re: [BackupPC-users] Backup to distant FTP Server

Hi,

Les Mikesell wrote on 2011-06-23 14:20:57 -0500 [Re: [BackupPC-users] Backup to 
distant FTP Server]:
> On 6/23/2011 6:41 AM, Arnaud Forster wrote:
> >
> > I need to use backuppc with a distant FTP server as destination. So, I
> > used curftpfs to mount my FTP connection to a local folder and choosed
> > it as the root of my destination. [...]
> 
> Are you saying you use a remote ftp based server as your backuppc 
> archive storage?  I wouldn't expect that to work at all unless it 
> supports hardlinks through the fuse interface - which doesn't seem possible.
> 
> In any case, linux distributions usually have an automounter that will 
> mount filesystems on demand as they are accessed and unmount after a 
> timeout. [...]

... but only if they are unused!

That said, I believe $TopDir is the BackupPC daemon's working directory (hmm,
no, that doesn't seem to be true, but it usually has a log files opened under
$TopDir/log, though the location may be changed). In any case, BackupPC doesn't
really handle $TopDir disappearing too well, so you're bound to get into
trouble if it does (actually, I'd consider it a bug if anything emulating a
*file system* through FTP would not transparently reconnect if the server
disconnects - such a severe bug, in fact, that I'd consider the software
"experimental" at best and avoid it for any serious work).

In any case, you should verify your assumption that "this is working fine".
* Are your link counts accurate, i.e. does pooling work, or do you in fact
  have N+1 independant copies of each file that should be pooled?
* I'd expect BackupPC to be *extremely slow* on an FTP-based pool. What might
  seem to work on an empty pool with a small test backup set will almost
  certainly degrade over time with a growing pool and hash collisions.
  BackupPC is optimized for fast pool access and potentially slow client
  access, not the other way around.

Why are you using an FTP server as destination? How "distant" is it (i.e. how
fast or slow is the link)? What amount of data are you planning to back up?
What are you trying to protect against?

Chances are BackupPC is not the right tool for the task you have in mind, or
at least isn't being used in the correct way.

Hope that helps.

Regards,
Holger

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
All the data continuously generated in your IT infrastructure contains a 
definitive record of customers, application performance, security 
threats, fraudulent activity and more. Splunk takes this data and makes 
sense of it. Business sense. IT sense. Common sense.. 
http://p.sf.net/sfu/splunk-d2d-c1
_______________________________________________
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/