Re: [rdiff-backup-users] Client dying "randomly" on 1.1.16

[Chris Wilson]

Hi Oliver,

On Fri, 22 Aug 2008, Oliver Hookins wrote:

> We are doing backups by initiating from the backup server, and for some 
> reason clients will die during the night but not every night. Sometimes 
> only once a week or less.
> 
> The only message we get from the operation is the following from the cron
> job ending:
> 
> Read from remote host exampleclient.backup: Connection timed out
> Fatal Error: Lost connection to the remote system

My guess is that either your connection to the server is going down, or 
it's being terminated by a firewall in between the client and the server, 
when the connection is idle for some time, e.g. while the client is doing 
work locally, scanning directories or diffing a large file or something.

You might want to check whether, for example, a long-lived SSH session 
between client and server, without TCP or SSH keep-alives, is able to 
survive the night without activity, and not be reset as soon as you try to 
use it in the morning.

Failing that, the last few packets of output of a tcpdump of the 
connection on the client side, with timestamps, might be useful in 
diagnosing the problem.

Cheers, Chris.
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