Re: [BackupPC-users] Writing archives to external drive

Phil Reynolds <phil-backuppc AT tinsleyviaduct DOT com> wrote on 10/15/2013 08:05:14 AM: > I haven't seen BackupPC write an archive during my testing - maybe I'm > missing some settings?

More likely, you're just expecting too much: BackupPC does not write an archive on a schedule at all. It only writes one based on a request from a user. And there *is* some configuration that needs to be done by you: see the documentation for the section entitled "Archive functions".

Please note that the request does not need to come from an actual human: You can use a cron entry to script this. Google "BackupPC archive from cron" for lots of alternatives.
> Are there any suggestions that could make my use of BackupPC in this > way easier, or more practical?
The Google mentioned above will help. Basically, you will mount the external drive to a particular path, then script an archive to that path.

I like BackupPC very much, but its archive capabilities are rudimentary at best. No scheduled archives, no ability to run more than one archive at a time (which trips me up when one archive runs long and my next scheduled one runs!), and no ability to create incremental or differential archives. So you may not have the flexibility that you want.

An alternative solution for places with sufficient bandwidth (which isn't as much as you might think if you're using rsync) is to simply run a second BackupPC server somewhere else. That gives you way better offsite protection. If you can accomplish that, the only reason to use archives is for long-term archiving, in which case its limitations are much less painful.

Tim Massey


Out of the Box Solutions, Inc. Creative IT Solutions Made Simple! http://www.OutOfTheBoxSolutions.com tmassey AT obscorp DOT com		22108 Harper Ave. St. Clair Shores, MI 48080 Office: (800)750-4OBS (4627) Cell: (586)945-8796

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