Re: [rdiff-backup-users] Safe to mirror backup dir with rsync?

[Alex Samad]

On Wed, Dec 23, 2009 at 01:58:30PM -0800, Engel Sanchez wrote:
> Thank you all for your suggestions!  I'm going to go with the solution of 
> doing cascaded rdiff-backups both pointing at the source directories and 
> without rsync and simply spreading the cron jobs to avoid touching the 
> sources while they are updated (the sources are hot copies of a couple of 
> databases and a subversion repo).  Using rsync and risking leaving the remote 
> backup in a bad state didn't seem like a great idea to me. (Say rsync's 
> connection breaks and original server fails before next backup). At least 
> rdiff-backup can deal with a partially updated backup if also done by 
> rdiff-backup.  

strange for the same reasons I have used rsync - I can capture when it
fails and restart and it doesn't need to roll back it continues where it
left off. rdiff-backup has to unroll and then restart so for a 2 hour
backup that fails in the last 10 min, you will need to do another 2
hours of backup with rdiff-backup and only 10 min with rsync....

to stop the corruption problem right now I use semaphores around my
backup scripts to stop certain things happening at the same time :)

Alex

> 
>  Engel A. Sanchez
> 
> 
> “Do what you love to do and give it your very best. Whether it's business or 
> baseball, or the theater, or any field. If you don't love what you're doing 
> and you can't give it your best, get out of it. Life is too short. You'll be 
> an old man before you know it.”
> 
> 
> http://engelsanchez.net
> 
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message ----
> From: Alex Samad <address@hidden>
> To: address@hidden
> Sent: Wed, December 23, 2009 4:13:16 PM
> Subject: Re: [rdiff-backup-users] Safe to mirror backup dir with rsync?
> 
> On Wed, Dec 23, 2009 at 12:52:03AM +0100, Cybertinus wrote:
> > Hello,
> > 
> > I'm using rdiff-backup to create the backups of my directories. It all
> > goes to /backup, which is a external harddrive. Then I'm using rsync to
> > mirror everything to /backup_sync, which is a second external harddrive.
> > This one is encrypted and I move it to an external location once a week
> > (and the disk from the external location then becomes the sync disk ;)
> > ). I'm using this strategy because when I swap the sync disks, they are
> > disconnected from my computer for a day. Some data I'm backing up every
> > hour, so I need a external drive at my computer at all times.
> > This system is working perfectly for me. The only thing I would
> > recommend is to prevent running rdiff-backup at the same time as rsync.
> > To prevent that your mirror is accidentally destroyed, because you would
> > by rsyncing incomplete rdiff-backup data. I haven't build in this
> > precaution in my backupscripts yet. For the time being I'm preventing it
> > from running at the same moment by choosing the correct times in my
> > cronjobs.
> 
> Hi
> 
> I am doing something similar.
> 
> local machine rdiff-backup to /backup (lvm partition).
> then a rsync to the local backup server and at the same time a rsync to
> an offsite location - via adsl.
> 
> I do this because my initial rdiff-backup can happen quickly and cause
> the lest disruption - if the source is on a lvm I can take a snapshot
> and use that but not all the sources are.
> 
> I have come across one problem, if the over adsl takes too long the
> rdiff-backup destination on the local machine can change thus giving you
> a non in sync backup offsite.
> 
> There is another thread asking for a tool to lock the destination to
> prevent this
> 
> Alex
> 
> > 
> > Cheers,
> > Cybertinus
> > 
> > On 23/12/09 00:03, Gavin wrote:
> > > Hi Engel,
> [snip]
> 

-- 
"Bureaucracy is the enemy of innovation."
                -- Mark Shepherd, former President and CEO of Texas Instruments

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