<
mstowe AT chicago.us.mensa DOT org> wrote:
>
>
>> On Tue, Feb 26, 2013 at 3:26 PM, Michael Stowe
>> <
mstowe AT chicago.us.mensa DOT org> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Can someone tell what the drawbacks of using cygwin/ssh/rsync on the
>>>> windows BackupPc clients ? I just tried it yesterday on windows xp and
>>>> it worked well. I believe this method of backup should also work on
>>>> 2008r2 servers?
>>>
>>> Drawbacks versus ... what?
>>>
>>> Windows in general has issues with file semantics, and its system of
>>> overcoming those is essentially to use VSS, the Volume Snapshot Service.
>>> For BackupPC, there have been two solutions developed, one that requires
>>> ssh, and one that instead uses winexe, which leverages samba. The ssh
>>> solution encrypts in transit, but (naturally) requires the installation
>>> of
>>> ssh and the appropriate version of vshadow. The winexe version has an
>>> installer which takes care of the client details, but requires
>>> winexe/samba installed on the BackupPC server.
>>>
>>> There are some minor functional differences in the implementations; the
>>> ssh version backs up ACL's (in one of two ways) and the winexe version
>>> handles backing up machines that are powered down. However, the
>>> features
>>> aren't incompatible, and since both are scripted, can be added to either
>>> one.
>>
>> Sorry about the confusing question. I was actually asking in general
>> versus all other methods available to backup windows using BackupPC.
>>
>> Thanks for the information. It's certainly useful. I used method
>> mentioned at
http://www.cs.umd.edu/~cdunne/projs/backuppc_guide.html
>> for my windows xp client. It didn't mention anything about volume
>> snapshot service or vshadow. I am not sure if I am using vshadow but I
>> do find a service in my windows xp named "Volume Shadow Copy " that is
>> set to manual. So I guess vshadow is not being used on when backup is
>> taken. Do I have to start vshadow and set to to automatic for future?
>
> What's there is neither of the open-file solutions I describe, so you'll
> either need to switch, or simply be unable to back up open files (this may
> not be a problem, depending on your backup strategy.)
>
> vshadow, the windows service, doesn't actually do anything unless it's
> specifically invoked, so setting it to automatic won't do anything, nor
> will starting the service by itself. The tricky thing about transient
> shadow volume copies is that they need to be invoked *before* rsync, thus
> the complexity. The windows-edition-specific program "vshadow" allows
> management from the command line.
