Topic: Backup2ws failing

[lproven]

I'm trying to use the backup2ws add-in to back up 2 servers onto workstations. The idea is to backup onto external Firewire or USB2 drives to make the backups removable.

However, b2w isn't working for me.

I create a share on the workstation - either on its internal disk or on the external one, it doesn't matter.

I use the "smbclient" command on the server to check that I can access that workstation - I'm using IP addresses, since I don't run internal DNS. All the workstations on all my networks are on DHCP, but addresses usually persist once assigned. I check that the SME Server can log in to the client and see the shared drive.

Then I start a backup2ws job.

Watching "top" on the server, I can see backup2ws start, then "rar" starts running. It typically runs for less than a minute; often, it creates no file on the workstation, but sometimes it gets up to 5, 6, or 7MB, then quits out. No errors, nothing in any log I can find, it just stops, rar sits there doing nothing for a while as the file stops getting bigger, then it silently quits. The biggest it's ever done was about 35MB. I've left it overnight or for a whole weekend; it never gets any further.

Thus, I'm unable to back up my servers. This is getting to be a critical problem.

Any suggestions for either how to troubleshoot this, or alternatives, would be EXTREMELY welcome!

[Magnus]

try to use backup or restore instead. it will backup your accounts mail web and your settings for the server...

I used it when i reinstalled my box from e-smith 6.0b to 6.0.1-01 custom version.
Worked like a charm =)

Regards
Magnus

[k_graham]

I'm trying to use the backup2ws add-in to back up 2 servers onto workstations. The idea is to backup onto external Firewire or USB2 drives to make the backups removable.

However, b2w isn't working for me.

I create a share on the workstation - either on its internal disk or on the external one, it doesn't matter.

I

Make sure you are using the appropriate backup2ws. The 6 version is in a beta directory I think in Darrels SME area and the 5.6 version is if I recall the easily found one as e-smith. I had to find one of his posts to get his website from his email ending and work back from there to find the correct version.

Also initially try his complete backup before making changes. And see if it starts to build 650 meg volumes as set for CD. - Then adjust accordingly remembering linux has 2 gig file limit so you probably want 1.5 gig if saving after to DVD.

Another item as I recall is you can't save to subdirectories of the share - it must go straight to the share created.

And you may have to use manual rather that timed backups.

Lastly, you can use Winrar to back up volumes of size you choose if just trying to back up data from the ibays of the CD.

Make sure admin is a authorized user of the Windows workstation with administrator privileges and use that as the backup person in backup2ws

[lproven]

Thanks for the tips, both.

Magnus:
- do you mean the ordinary options in the web management interface? If so, I can't. My servers hold from 10-20GB of data and the web interface backup command fails if the backup's bigger than 3.99GB.

K_Graham:
- I'm on the easily-found one. I'll look for an update. It creates subdirectories itself, in the share, when it runs. I don't see how I can alter that without editing the script.
- It *does* have a volume size setting - I've tried changing that. I didn't know about the 2GB size limit before. That will be a problem, all right, but then, the files are on remote NTFS or FAT32 filesystems, and NTFS at least should be fine.
- I've tried both manual and timed and it makes no odds, but I'll investigate both once I've looked at the earlier issues.

[k_graham]

- It *does* have a volume size setting - I've tried changing that. I didn't know about the 2GB size limit before. That will be a problem, all right, but then, the files are on remote NTFS or FAT32 filesystems, and NTFS at least should be fine.
- I've tried both manual and timed and it makes no odds, but I'll investigate both once I've looked at the earlier issues.

Check this thread http://forums.contribs.org/index.php?topic=22643.0

The same problems keep resurfacing. If using 6 then get the other backup2ws.

You need it so you can create multi-volume backups and you must keep them to under 2 gig as thats the biggest linux does.  

If using 5.6 you might get by with what you are using. I think we that version there was a problem where the 911 backup did not work. But if you copied the line of what Darrel said was being backed up then used the window that let you create your own backup then pasted the 911 backup info in, it did work.

Ken

[lproven]

Ken: thanks for that pointer. I've already discovered the problem discussed there, and solved it, although it causes hours of head-scratching.

It is an issue of domain security.

When a Windows NT/2K/XP machine joins a domain, it has 2 security databases: its local one and the domain one. Remote users trying to connect to that machine can use either sort of account. Let's say the machine is called WKSTN-1 in a domain MYLAN, and the PC had only one local account, "administrator", when it joined the domain. The share is called "backup".

If you're connecting from an SME Server which is the domain controller with Samba, you can use either the local "administrator" account or the domain "admin" account.

To mount the drive from the server shell prompt:

mount -t smbfs -o username:[uname],[pwd] //wkstn-1/backup /mnt/test

If you use a username of "wkstn-1/administrator", that's the local account. If you use "mylan/admin", that's the domain account.

There's a known problem with using local accounts to connect from Samba, so in the "username" box in the backup2ws screen in Server Manager, for the username, type:

 domain name, forward slash, user name

e.g.

 mylan/admin

to force Samba to use the domain account instead of the local account.

If, for some reason, you wanted to use the local account, you'd type:

 machine name, forward slash, user name

e.g.

 wkstn-1/administrator

The case of the user/machine/domain names *shouldn't* matter, in theory. I always use all lower case as a matter of course to avoid confusion.

However, the problem I'm having is that when backup2ws has created a file of maximum size - I've tried 2 million KB, in other words, just under 2 Gigabytes, and also 650,000 KB - either way, backup2ws just stops. I'd expected it to create a 2nd file and just keep on going. As it is, it appears to hang.

Has anyone else encountered this? Is it meant to happen? Is there anything I can do?

I don't want to archive to CDR or DVDR. I have bought 3 80GB USB2 drives just for archiving backups. Can I disable the maximum size? My drives are formatted as FAT32, meaning max file size is 4GB, but I am happy to reformat them as NTFS to remove any practical max file size issues. These drives will never be mounted on the server itself so Linux's maximum file size limit should not be an issue.

[Kobus]

This might help, I dont know.

I have never been able to backup my esmith to work station if the file is over 3.99 GB. I then tried Opera browser and voila. It is working. So the only thing I can make of that is that MS IE do not support files larger than 3.99 GB to be downloaded using IE. I now only use Opera to do workstation backup jobs.

[k_graham]

However, the problem I'm having is that when backup2ws has created a file of maximum size - I've tried 2 million KB, in other words, just under 2 Gigabytes, and also 650,000 KB - either way, backup2ws just stops. I'd expected it to create a 2nd file and just keep on going. As it is, it appears to hang.

Has anyone else encountered this? Is it meant to happen? Is there anything I can do?

I don't want to archive to CDR or DVDR. I have bought 3 80GB USB2 drives just for archiving backups. Can I disable the maximum size? My drives are formatted as FAT32, meaning max file size is 4GB, but I am happy to reformat them as NTFS to remove any practical max file size issues. These drives will never be mounted on the server itself so Linux's maximum file size limit should not be an issue.

If using Backup2ws I think you are limited to 2 gig as Linux is creating the file - prove me wrong
If using 6 then make sure you remove the old backup2ws as per this and get the beta 6 version installed
http://myezserver.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=538

REBOOT

Then in server manager

Be sure to try Darrels disaster recovery backup without changes and make sure RAR is the selected method.

Username     admin
Destination    //10.0.0.1/yourshare   via your fixed ip address/share  
size      start with default of 650000 but 1500000 also works after you successfully did it with the default

For Ibays you could back them up with Winrar the windows version of RAR and as it is from the Windows computer you can have larger volumes limited to the Windows file system. You can call winrar from a DOS batch file if desired - I did this before backup2ws and still use this method for my accounting data daily.


Ken