Topic: Backup - best way to backup ibays to another location!

[nigeltodd]

HI all,

I need to establish what is best way to back up ibays form SME 7 to either an SME DVD burner, or to anpother pc - either SME or Windows. Backup2WS used to be a good option, but with so many new contribs I am gettting confused. Does anyone have any htoughts, - searches for 'backup, back2ws, backup ibays' produces far too many results !

Many thanks in advance,

NT
Melbourne Australia

[mmccarn]

I haven't used it, but Michael Weinberger's Affa looks intriguing and easy to setup: http://forums.contribs.org/index.php?topic=36499.0

[dmay]

This depends on your individual needs and your preferred destination of your backup. There are many contribs, some have cross-over functionality, some are destination specific.

IIUC, here is my take on the most widely used contribs available

Michael Weinberger's Affa uses rsync and supports both local and remote server-to-server, server-to-NFS and local USB drive destinations. It does not support backup to Windows workstation destinations. It is a recent release and requires some command-line experience. I expect this contrib to evolve and improve with time. Niche is well suited for performing synchronized backups to remote destinations.

My contrib smeserver-dar2 uses dar and supports backup to any local Windows workstation, mountable server share or USB drive destinations. It has been evolving for many years. Easy to use and dare I say 'community' proven. Focus is performing full or partial backups to local destinations.

Jean Paul offers a custom version of e-smith-backup which uses dar and adds incremental backup support to Windows workstations, any mountable server share and local USB drive destinations. Focus is performing incremental backups to local destinations.

The backup-pc contrib focus is on performing local workstation/server backups to the server hard drive. You can use it to backup the server but this is not the main focus.

Darrell

[jfarschman]

Nigel,

  I sort of like use rsync for this.  Assuming you have a second SME server in the area and you want something fast.  This method runs incremental so you won't be keeping multiple snapshots of your backup.

Code: [Select]

RMH=10.6.6.10

# note trailing slashes
rsync -vPa -e ssh $RMH:/home/e-smith/files/ibays/  /home/e-smith/iles/ibays


RMH is your remote host.

If you build the same ibays on the second SME server this will populate them.  Of course, you will need to build an ssh trust between the two servers and schedule this in cron, but that's pretty simple too.

[SoftDux]

My contrib smeserver-dar2 uses dar and supports backup to any local Windows workstation, mountable server share or USB drive destinations. It has been evolving for many years. Easy to use and dare I say 'community' proven. Focus is performing full or partial backups to local destinations.

Where do I get more info on Dar2? I have installed it sometime ago, but don't see it in /server-manager, and there wasn't any documentation for it?

Jean Paul offers a custom version of e-smith-backup which uses dar and adds incremental backup support to Windows workstations, any mountable server share and local USB drive destinations. Focus is performing incremental backups to local destinations.

Darrell

Where do I find Jean Pau's backup solution, and what is it called?

[raem]

SoftDux

Are these things really that hard to find, or do people just not bother to look ?
Accessible from the main wiki page is this:
http://wiki.contribs.org/Category:Contrib
which lists
Dar2
and
Backup with dar

[SoftDux]

Sorry RayMitchell, it seems we always clash.

I know where the Dar2 contrib is, I was looking for documentation, please re-read my post.

[the-heck]

Hi.

I used both Dar2 and Affa Backup.

I have Dar2 working for over a year now, but only started using Affa for backup for more than two months now.

If you are talking about different location that will be using slow Internet connection, which is in my case, Office1 and Office2 and House.  I setup an Affa server from office2 and house.  Both acts as off-site backup for our office1.  It is very good.  Though it is without a webgui, handling is easy.  I encounter a tricky problem when I restore with a special character.  You can find it in the wiki. thanks to documentation team.  Restoring a deleted file/folder is a breeze!  and with a notification option too.

Dar2 is very good in USB Drive Backup.  I use it for my handcarry backup and an attached USB Drive for smeserver in Office1, though I had to do a small addition to the mounting part of the USB Drive. Scheduling is good and compression is excellent, though it really increased the backup time.  I did a full restore before with Dar2 and it was perfect.

Both just keep on running and I can sleep well, for I know I have backup my config and data.

Cheers! 

[raem]

SoftDux

...I was looking for documentation, please re-read my post.

Are you trying to be deliberately silly ?

Do wiki articles somehow not qualify as documentation ?
What then have all the people who have the purple Documentation "decoration" next to their name been writing  ie the Docmentation team ?

That is the ONLY documentation on contribs.org, apart from numerous posts over the years in the forums, which from time to time do have some usage tips, so search if you want/expect more documention, or create/add to a wiki page yourself that contains the information you seem to think is missing/needed.

All the documentation you really need in order to use the dar2 contrib is in the contrib ie on the server manager pages, so install, read & try. There are a few notes about additional configuration/add ons etc for dar2, see
http://wiki.contribs.org/DAR2


There are copius notes (ie documentation) re backup with dar in the Contrib article referred to. I can only conclude that you have not even bothered to read that article as there is so much information provided, which was summarised from a long thread in the forums.
http://wiki.contribs.org/Backup_with_dar

[SoftDux]

RayMitchell.....

Clearly in your view the work Documentation is incorrect, so let me re-phrase. I WANT TO KNOW HOW TO USE DAR2, give me some samples / howto's / tutorials / whatever you call it. EVERY other Contrib has some documentation / howto / tutorials / notes / explanation / whater telling you how to use it. If I wrote DAR2, then I would have known EXACTLY how to use it. Same as affa, you need to logon to the shell / console via ssh, and type "affa --run backup" and the backup begins.

<rant>
P.S. Don't take this personal, but I think our diferent languges / cultures / whatever plays a role with our communication problems. Does your car have a boot, or a trunk? We call it a boot, if you call it a trunk, then it means that we use a lot of different word for the same thing
</rant>

Actually I have installed EVERY backup solution tere is in the Contribs, and so far I could not see DAR2 anywhere on my server. I have DAR running (still need to test it tough, but that will be in 2 weeks when I'm back from my holiday). Affa works well, but I need to tweak it to my needs, it backs up a whole 90GB data evertime - I need to figure out how to get it only backup changed files since a full backup.

Anyway, no where on the Wiki for DAR2 does it say how to actually use it, or where / how to acces it. There's some addons for midnight commander, which I don't use,but that's it. And if DAR2 is really DAR, then why doesn't the DA2 contrib say so, then I coul at least go and see how DAR works, and see if will work on DAR2

[raem]

SoftDux

I'll repeat it again, slightly differently, as you do not seem to understand what I'm telling you about the dar2 contrib.

There is no documentation that I'm aware of except the wiki Contrib Howto article at
http://wiki.contribs.org/DAR2
and various other forum posts on the same subject, some of which have usage information.

The contrib does install a panel called Disk ARchive in server manager in the Backup classification heading, and it's generally the very first one at the top of server manager, so you cannot really miss seeing it. It's obviously not called Dar2, but I would have also thought that anyone who can use sme server would easily identify any new panels that get installed into server manager. After all Disk Archive is what DAR stands for, see http://dar.linux.free.fr/


To install do

cd to an empty folder
wget http://mirror.contribs.org/smeserver/releases/7/smetest/i386/RPMS/dar-2.3.6-1.el4.sme.i386.rpm
wget http://mirror.contribs.org/smeserver/contribs/dmay/smeserver/7.x/smeserver-dar2-0.0.1-3dmay.noarch.rpm

yum localinstall *.rpm

The only possible problem during install that I'm aware of is if the new panel ends up in an unidentified group (at the bottom of server manager), then run this command to fix

/etc/e-smith/events/actions/navigation-conf
(ignore all warnings that appear on screen)

Note this can happen with other contribs too, when they are installed using the rpm -Uvh command.


Then open server manager & select Disk ARchive under the Backup classification heading.

The panel has supportive notes next to each field to "prompt " you for what to enter and is fairly easy to follow. It is quite comprehensive and that's why additional or seperate tutorial notes are not really needed, all the information needed is in the panel notes/field descriptions.

Just try it.

ie I have pasted the text from the panel below, which is in effect the tutorial you are wanting.

Disk ARchive

Use this panel to define, schedule and launch server backups and restores, to and from network shares or an attached local disk.



Then you click on the Create backup job button



Disk ARchive

Create backup job

Enter a unique backup job name. The name should contain only letters, numbers, periods, hyphens and underscores. No spaces.
Job name    

Enter a description for this backup job.
Description    

All backup selections needed to perform a Disaster Recovery are preset below. Note absolute paths are invalid. All paths must be relative to the base / directory. Example: [home] is relative/correct, [/home] is absolute/incorrect. If you are a performing a standard backup, edit the backup selections as required below. One entry per line. Do not enter [ /,/blah,proc,tmp ].
Backup selections    etc/e-smith/templates-custom etc/e-smith/templates-user-custom etc/group etc/gshadow etc/passwd etc/samba/secrets.tdb etc/samba/smbpasswd etc/shadow etc/smbpasswd etc/ssh etc/sudoers home/e-smith root

Enter any directory tree to prune and not include in the backup. Example: [ home/e-smith/files/ibays/ibayname ]. One entry per line. Wildcards * and ? valid.
Prune directories    

Enter any file exclusions. Example: [ home/e-smith/files/ibays/ibayname/files/document.doc ]. One entry per line. Wildcards * and ? are valid.
Exclude files    

Valid targets are an attached local drive or network share.

If backing up to an attached local drive, enter the target mount point of your drive. Example: [/media/usbdisk]. Leave the username and password fields blank.

If backing up to a network share, enter the target in UNC format. Example: [//computername/sharename]. In addition you must enter a valid username/password that is a local account on the target with full access rights to the share.
Target    
Username    
Password    

Three file systems are supported. [ext3] for backup to local attached disk. [smbfs] for backup to Windows workstation and SME Server network shares. [cifs] for backup to Microsoft Windows Server. Note if using cifs, target entry above must use IP address. Example: [//10.1.1.1/sharename].
File system    

Enter the backup volume segment slices in megabytes. As an example to create 650MB volume segments for copying to CDR/RW you would enter [ 650 ]. This would create in the target files of the following format: job.yyyy.mm.dd.1.dar, job.yyyy.mm.dd.2.dar, etcetera. Note the maximum segment size is 2000MB. Total backup job size is limited only by available target free space.
Slice size    

Enter the compression level from 0 (none) to 9 (maximum). No compression dramitcally improves backup speed.
Compression    

Enter a backup expiry time. This will keep backups on the target for n days. Choosing 0 means backups are overwritten every day.
Expiry    

Verbose option sets the output detail. On for full file-by-file listing and log file generated. Off for summary details only and no log file generated. Note if enabled size of output files is related to size of backup job and therefore can become quite large! Scheduled jobs will receive an e-mail to admin of job details.
Verbose    

Enter the day you would like this backup to occur. Leave manual for unscheduled manual use.
Backup day    

Enter the time you would like this backup to occur in 24 hr (hh:mm) format.
Backup time




Please reply with how you get on installing & using smeserver-dar2

Do an "advanced" forum search on DAR2 and author dmay and you will find plenty to read.

[m]

Affa works well, but I need to tweak it to my needs, it backs up a whole 90GB data evertime - I need to figure out how to get it only backup changed files since a full backup.

Why tweaking? Have you noticed this: "http://wiki.contribs.org/Affa#Bug_report"? Reporting a problem should be the first choice and there is a good chance that your problem will be solved. If you did it yourself it is great, but why didn't you contribute your work? Just complaining isn't really helpful.

[MSmith]

If you want to "pull" from a Windows workstation instead of pushing from the server, I've had good luck with both the free and paid versions of SyncBack (from 2brightsparks) and also with a batchfile running good old Robocopy (Google for rktools).  Sometimes I go "old school" and use ntbackup from a batch file, then use 7zip to compress the result of ntbackup.  There are various utilities usable from the command line to incorporate datestamps; the one I use is called ntdate.exe and I *think* it's from the AINTX toolset.  Nevertheless, it works.  Here's an example batchfile that would use robocopy to mirror ibay FILES on server SERVER0 to local folder C:\data\server0mirror, then ntbackup & zip, with the compressed file hopefully small enough to fit on one DVD:

@echo off
c:
cd \batch
#  Next 2 lines create text file with today's date in YYYYMMDD, then load that into environment variable "datestamp"
ntdate -f %%Y%%m%%d > today.txt
for /F "tokens=*" %%i in (today.txt) do set datestamp=%%i
# Just to be sure we can see the server!
if not exist \\server0\files goto NOCONNECT
#  Good documentation of switches at http://www.ss64.com/nt/robocopy.html
robocopy \\server0\files\ c:\data\server0mirror\ /MIR /FFT /R:0 /W:0 /NP /ZB /LOG:C:\batch\mirror-%datestamp%.log
# Now ntbackup kicks in and makes the datestamped BKF in C:\data\BKF
ntbackup backup C:\data\server0mirror\ /j "Full Backup %datestamp%" /f "C:\data\BKF\Fullback%datestamp%.bkf" /M normal
# I install 7zip in C:\7zip and call it from the commandline to put the compressed backup in C:\data\ZIP
c:\7zip\7z a -tzip C:\data\ZIP\Fullback%datestamp%.zip C:\data\BKF\Fullback%datestamp%.bkf
goto EXIT
:NOCONNECT
echo Oops, can't see file server!
pause
:EXIT
exit


DISCLAIMER:  This is variation on a batchfile that I adapt for various sites, so if you decide to use it, make SURE you understand what it's doing and DOUBLE-CHECK my syntax!

Anybody have any good tricks for automating burning the ZIP file to DVD, after checking to see if it'll fit on one single-layer DVD?

[SoftDux]

SoftDux

I'll repeat it again, slightly differently, as you do not seem to understand what I'm telling you about the dar2 contrib.

There is no documentation that I'm aware of except the wiki Contrib Howto article at
http://wiki.contribs.org/DAR2
and various other forum posts on the same subject, some of which have usage information.

I'm sorry, RayMitchell. I didn't see the information on the Dar2 Contrib Wiki page, http://wiki.contribs.org/DAR2

It's interesting to note though, that the info I requested was added a day AFTER I asked for it, http://wiki.contribs.org/index.php?title=DAR2&diff=8231&oldid=8230 - yes I get attacked again, making me look like a total idiot for asking this info, and not SEARCHING. PLEASE STOP treating me like a fool. I am not.

[SoftDux]

Why tweaking? Have you noticed this: "http://wiki.contribs.org/Affa#Bug_report"? Reporting a problem should be the first choice and there is a good chance that your problem will be solved. If you did it yourself it is great, but why didn't you contribute your work? Just complaining isn't really helpful.

I want to set it up with my own prefences still, in other words how I want to use it. Why do I have to explain EVERY ACTION I take every time?