Topic: Setting up Backup to USB Drive

[girkers]

I have gone through the Server Manager and setup the backup to occur each night at 10pm and I am getting the emails back straight after this time saying that it can't access the required location, (I think from memory) /media/usbdisk.

Now I know that I have not set up the USB drive to be mounted to this location, so I know exactly what the problem is I am just not sure how to fix it.

1. What file system should I use on my USB Drives?
2. Do I need to manually mount and unmount the drives when I change them over?
3. I have two (2) external USB Drives, apart from doing a full backup every night and rotating the drives, what other options should I consider.

Thanks.

[gzartman]

1. What file system should I use on my USB Drives?

Depends on how you are going to be using it.  USB drives come formatted FAT32.  If all you are going to be using it for is backup to SME, then I'd recommend reformatting to ext3.  FAT32 is not a reliable file system and SME does not support NTFS.

2. Do I need to manually mount and unmount the drives when I change them over?

Yes and no.  SME will automatically create an fstab entry for each USB drive at /media/usbdisk1 (2,3,...,x)   This mount point will need to be manually mounted.  However, you can create another mount point for the usb disk and make an entry in fstab and SME will automatically mount it at bootup.  Technically, you should unmount the drive prior to unplugging it to avoid data loss/corruption.

3. I have two (2) external USB Drives, apart from doing a full backup every night and rotating the drives, what other options should I consider.

Depends on the drive sizes.  If you can keep a few weeks worth of nightly backups on your drives with one off-site at any given time, then you are pretty safe.   However, I'm not a backup guru.

Perhaps someone like Shad or Darrell May could chim in here.  I know Darrell did quite alot of work documenting USB drive backup when he started the Dar2 project.  You should try searching the forums and the devinfo mailing list.

One final note:  USB disks are an OK backup solution, but use them with caution.  They are much more prone to failure than an internal drive due to the heat generated by the drives.  NEVER rely on a single USB drive as your only fallback.  Make sure you have at least two.

[stephen noble]

I am getting the emails back straight after this time saying that it can't access the required location, (I think from memory) /media/usbdisk.

2. Do I need to manually mount and unmount the drives when I change them over?

Thanks.

you may need to raise a bug,

but check, /var/log/messages when you connect the drive
it should create a mount point, but not mount the drive
if you mounted the drive, backup will complain, read the email more carefully

[girkers]

Thanks for the replies so far. It would appear that my drive is not mounting as stated previously, but I also can't do an fdisk on it either, here is the relevant exerpt from the /var/log/messages:

Code: [Select]

Jan 27 19:12:03 caine kernel: usb 1-1: new high speed USB device using address 15
Jan 27 19:12:03 caine kernel: scsi592 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices
Jan 27 19:12:03 caine kernel:   Vendor: WD        Model: 10EAVS External   Rev: 1.05
Jan 27 19:12:03 caine kernel:   Type:   Direct-Access                      ANSI SCSI revision: 02
Jan 27 19:12:03 caine kernel: SCSI device sda: 1953525168 512-byte hdwr sectors (1000205 MB)
Jan 27 19:12:03 caine kernel: sda: assuming drive cache: write through
Jan 27 19:12:03 caine kernel: SCSI device sda: 1953525168 512-byte hdwr sectors (1000205 MB)
Jan 27 19:12:03 caine kernel: sda: assuming drive cache: write through
Jan 27 19:12:03 caine kernel:  sda: sda1
Jan 27 19:12:03 caine kernel: Attached scsi disk sda at scsi592, channel 0, id 0, lun 0
Jan 27 19:12:03 caine kernel: USB Mass Storage device found at 15
Jan 27 19:12:04 caine kernel: usb 1-1: USB disconnect, address 15
Jan 27 19:12:04 caine scsi.agent[26851]: bogus sysfs DEVPATH=/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.7/usb1/1-1/1-1:1.0/host592/target592:0:0/592:0:0:0
Jan 27 19:12:04 caine kernel: usb 1-1: new high speed USB device using address 16
Jan 27 19:12:05 caine kernel: usb 1-1: device not accepting address 16, error -71
Jan 27 19:12:05 caine kernel: usb 1-1: new high speed USB device using address 17
Jan 27 19:12:05 caine kernel: usb 1-1: device not accepting address 17, error -71
Jan 27 19:12:08 caine hal.hotplug[25726]: timout(10000 ms) waiting for /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.7/usb1/1-1/1-1:1.0/host580/target580:0:0/580:0:0:0
Jan 27 19:12:08 caine scsi.agent[27047]: bogus sysfs DEVPATH=/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.7/usb1/1-1/1-1:1.0/host580/target580:0:0/580:0:0:0

This code gets repeated any time I unplug and then plug the drive back in.

[chris burnat]

Googling for bogus sysfs DEVPATH= suggests that you may have hit a kernel issue, not sure.  The best place for your problem now is the Bugtracker, please fill a report at Bugzilla and provide details including the manufacturer and model of your USB drive(s). Also a copy of /var/log/message included in this thread.
Thanks
chris

[girkers]

After some further investigation found that it was a dodgy USB bus, once I had changed the lead to a different bus on the computer I was able to partition, format and mount the drive.

Thank you everyone for the help. Now to work out what settings for rotating sets and daily backup in sets?

[David Harper]

IMHO, try something like 2 weekly sets, set to run on Fridays (a good day for full backups because it captures the week's work). Daily snapshots the other days.