Topic: Backing up ibays using windows software

[Matt]

Hi there

I have never quite been able to get the various backup solutions working very well with my sme server and really want to make a backup of all the shared files that we have in several ibays. I know the backup2usb should do this but I have never had any luck getting it to work and having posted several times here I still haven't found the problem. 

Anyway I have just noticed that there is a new version of sme, so I would like to upgrade my current server and do a backup of the ibays before hand. 

Does anyone have any suggestions for a good solution which can be run from a windows PC that will backup my ibays without any problems, ideally opensource/freeware or cheapish.  I am only really concerned about backing up the ibays, so that I can then try to upgrade or failing that do a fresh install of sme server without having to worry. 

[chris burnat]

You can achieve this using Rsync for example - its free.  If you are not familiar with command line, Dungog.net has a commercial version which will do nicely - you can configure Rsync from a panel in server-manager.   The alternative is to use a Windows application, there are many. I have used Double Image VS5 in the past  (google for it), it will reliably pull ibays from an SME server onto a MS box.

[mercyh]

Hi,

Whatever solution you use be sure to test it well. I was doing a backup with a windows product onto a Winxp workstation disk and found that the backup was dropping file user rights and ownership.

[mmccarn]

If I only need files and folders (and not user access rights information) I use 'inSync' from www.dillobits.com (adware mode works but can't be scheduled) or ViceVersa from www.tgrmn.com (demo version runs for 30 days).

Or, you can get 'robocopy' from Microsoft (comes with Vista, or download it w/ the Windows 2003 resource kit (which works fine on Win XP).
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=9D467A69-57FF-4AE7-96EE-B18C4790CFFD&displaylang=en)

[dmay]

I know the backup2usb should do this...

That contrib is ancient history. Current is smeserver-dar2:

http://wiki.contribs.org/DAR2

From Windows, you could also use Microsoft's free SyncToy.

Darrell

[imcintyre]

I had great success backing up over the network and/or the internet using 2brightsparks syncbackSE. Never had to do a complete restore but many times saved somebody who deleted something off the samda share and could not get it back.

its free

[del]

I've used Cobian Backup (http://www.educ.umu.se/~cobian/cobianbackup.htm) and it seems OK, never had to do a full restore but have restored individual files that have been deleted accidentally, you can schedule auto backups, run programs before or after the backup, tell it to shutdown the workstation when finished, backup usng FTP and even get it to email you the log when the jobs done, oh yes it's free  .
If you want to do manually maybe you could use WinSCP to copy the ibay contents to a windows machine.
Regards,
Del

[shriddx]

If you map the ibays to Windows drives then you can use basically any backup method on the Windows PC to backup the ibay's data... from plain 'copy and paste' through to 'zipping' or on to using full blown backup software like Symantec Backup Manager or similar (and could even schedule the jobs in this sort of case) ....

Or use something like Ghost/Drive Image software booted via a floppy with DOS network drivers (eg Universal Network Boot disk - downloadable from "http://www.netbootdisk.com/") to backup the whole system across as an image to a Windows based system....

Cor blimey, you Linux lot like your spell weaving and cauldron boiling don't you?   
Me, I get my brews at the local!!

[dilligaf]

What I have done that seems to work fairly well is modify smb.conf so an specific windows user can see all the "usehomes" folder.
Ray Mitchell had a how to do this.

So what I do is from an administrative desktop, map a drive letter to this folder, and I get everything (e-mail, as well as whatever is in the users home folders)

Other ibays can be handled the same way.

other locations to consider are mysql etc.