Steven Palm wrote:
> On Apr 27, 2009, at 12:47 PM, Kevin Keane wrote:
>
>> This depends on your situation, of course, but I found that very
>> often,
>> backing up workstations really isn't all that useful. Ideally, they
>> don't hold any data (because the data is stored on a server),
>>
>
> Life would be simple if everyone followed rules... ;) I have tried
> the enforcement route for too long, but it just isn't going to happen
> so I have to resort to protecting them from themselves.
>
Oh, I hear you on that! I'm not familiar enough with OS X, but how about
some kind of rsync-based mechanism to back up the local content? It
could probably be a server-based script if you have a way to detect when
the laptop is connected.
> And we are primarily an OS X shop, both servers and workstations. I
> would love to use "Mobile Home Folders", but since we allow quite a
> liberal "personal use" policy of the computers in terms of stored iTunes
> and other files, I can't be putting all of that on the server.
>
And you also shouldn't be responsible for backing it up... As a matter
of fact, backup issues are one of the main reasons I usually advise my
customers against a too-liberal personal-use policy, even ahead of
copyright, liability and security issues.
> So, something like BackupPC or Bacula with adequate restrictions of
> file types (mp3, aac and the like) is a nice compromise.
>
> Plus, it's amazing how often someone deletes the wrong file, or makes
> some fatal mistake and needs the version of some file from yesterday,
> so having a self-serve interface for workstations will be huge.
>
That's where an rsync-based solution might actually do very well. I
wrote a script the other day that creates a daily snapshot of all home
directories on a server, and keeps the last four days worth of snapshots
around. Since rsync handles hard links very nicely, four snapshots take
up hardly more space than one; each snapshot just stores the changed
files and the directory structure. Make the snapshots available as
read-only directory on the server, and voila - you've got your backup
issue solved and the self-serve interface at the same time.
My script, of course, is strictly server-based, so you would need to
make some adjustments. And in any case, I wrote it as a quick hack, you
could certainly clean it up.
Here is the script I am using. The source directory is /home/groups, the
destination directories are /home/groupshadow/1 through
/home/groupshadow/4. It is intended to be called from a cron script.
> #!/bin/bash
> # Creates a shadow copy of the shared folders in home
> # To make retrieving deleted / older files easy.
>
> # $1: number of the old directory
> function moveOldShadowDir
> {
> if [ -d /home/groupshadow/$1 ]
> then
> mv /home/groupshadow/$1 /home/groupshadow/$(($1+1))
> fi
> }
>
> rm -rf /home/groupshadow/4
> moveOldShadowDir 3
> moveOldShadowDir 2
> moveOldShadowDir 1
>
> # make the directory that will hold the new snapshot
> # Also if it doesn't exist, the one that would have
> # held the previous snapshot because cp -al and
> # rsync use them.
> mkdir -p /home/groupshadow/2
> mkdir -p /home/groupshadow/1
>
> # we copy all existing files from /2 to /1, but
> # only as links so it's fast and doesn't take
> # much space
> cp -al /home/groupshadow/2/* /home/groupshadow/1
> # Now use rsync to update the snapshot
> rsync -ra --delete /home/groups/* /home/groupshadow/1
--
Kevin Keane
Owner
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