Topic: No space left on device - workstation backup tmp store

[gbentley]

Hi All,

I have 90GB worth of data and an 160GB backup disc.  Only a few minor changes of small size are ever made yet the second day backup fails because I suspect the temp file space is also on the backup disc?

Any way round this at all? [change temp directory?]

I think overwrite entire backup daily was what I was used to on 7.5.1 and would want to replicate something like that or alternatively an entire backup on one day then the tiny incremental on the other days - would that still use tmp on the backup device and send it over quota on the backup disc?

Thanks!

ps Guess I could create a cron job to clear the disc? Seems a bit of a cludge tho lol!

Ed: As usual SME devs / docs gets their before me!

http://wiki.contribs.org/Backup_with_dar#Howto_set_the_backup_file_slice_size

[cactus]

I have 90GB worth of data and an 160GB backup disc.  Only a few minor changes of small size are ever made yet the second day backup fails because I suspect the temp file space is also on the backup disc?

Correct, IIRC there is even a warning on this in the backup configuration screen.

Any way round this at all? [change temp directory?]

No, changing the temp directory is not possible, but you could use incremental backups, which would save you some disk space.

ps Guess I could create a cron job to clear the disc? Seems a bit of a cludge tho lol!

That would be a bad idea as that would mean you would delete your backup before you successfully created a new more actual one. Why don't you just by extra disk space (not that expensive) or start using incremental backups?

[gbentley]

I actually have 2 x 160GB backup discs that are swapped nightly.

Would incremental only use a small amount of temp space?

And lastly is the mc support built into the wkstn backup on 8.x ?

[cactus]

I actually have 2 x 160GB backup discs that are swapped nightly.

Then you rotation scheme might not be set correctly as the old one is not removed before creating a new backup and is therefore filling up your disk before it finishes backup.

NB Please stop editing you posts to add additional questions. It makes answering them harder, use the preview option before you submit or submit a new post please.

[janet]

gbentley

I think you meant this
http://wiki.contribs.org/Backup_with_dar#Backup_disk_size_limits_workaround

Full daily backups and delete the old first is the obvious answer for you.
For that "smallish" amount of data, then doing a full backup every day is OK timewise.

You could configure backups for a full every month and then incrementals every day in between.
If you swap the backup disk every so often, then change the one month frequency to whatever time period it is that you swap disks eg weekly or fortnightly etc, but you will be in trouble if you do not swap the disk on the correct day of the cycle.

You can restore from any day's backup, or the most recent backup, or do partial restores.

Given the size of the backup disk, you will still have troubles if you only use one disk, so you will need to implement the fix suggested (ie delete first before new full backup starts). It's easy to set the cron job to run every day, if you do a full backup every day.

Given that you will have ongoing hassles with full/incrementals & disk swapping, you might want to look at Affa. The process will be fully automated, and will better handle disk swapping on an irregular schedule.

Your choice.

[janet]

gbentley

Quote from: gbentley on Today at 08:15:16 AM
ps Guess I could create a cron job to clear the disc? Seems a bit of a cludge tho lol!

cactus answered: That would be a bad idea as that would mean you would delete your backup before you successfully created a new more actual one.

That would not really be an issue as you have 2 backup disks swapped daily, so the disk you use tonight is the backup from 2 nights ago, so you still have the most recent backup on the other disk.

As you already have those disks etc, then what you are doing sounds the simplest answer, ie full backup each night, then just add in the cron job to delete before the backup starts.

[janet]

gbentley

And lastly is the mc support built into the wkstn backup on 8.x ?

A while ago I was testing that on sme8beta and it did not seem to work, even though I installed the plugin as per the DAR2 wiki article.
I had to abandon further testing at that time due to other work.
I have been busy all day testing contribs on sme8.0 final, so you have reminded me to look at that issue again.

Bug reported here
http://bugs.contribs.org/show_bug.cgi?id=6947

[gbentley]

Thanks for all replies!

I was trying to get it into my head just how much data incremental is likely to store in temp on the backup disc for incremental?

Can I assume it would only be as much data as there is in changed or added files only? If thats the case then there are hardly any changes [a few per week maybe] and virtually no additions. The data set is unlikely to grow any further. Its more of a disaster recovery off site if we are robbed / fire than a 'revisions' scenario.

[janet]

gbentley

Can I assume it would only be as much data as there is in changed or added files only?

Yes