Re: Can I interrupt an rdiff-backup backup?
Hi, it's still not quite enough information to be sure what you're trying to do, but you are aware that you can install rdiff-backup on Ubuntu as well as Windows, enable SSH on Windows, as to remotely backup Windows without going through a Samba drive? It might not be the best approach for your use case, but what you should definitely avoid is to use Samba _and_ the remote feature of rdiff-backup, as you would incur twice the network induced latency. A short explanation of which command you're calling where would help us help you. KR, Eric On January 22, 2023 11:03:20 AM UTC, Mike Hart wrote: >Hi Robert > >Thanks again for your quick response and thanks to Eric also. I took your >advice and deleted the whole directory. That worked! It wouldn't have >occurred to me that the *rm -rf* command would not work on the >rdiff-backup-data directory directly but issued one level up, would work?! >Anyway you don't look a gift horse in the mouth :). > >FYI both the server and the client are running Ubuntu 22.04. It is a Samba >network. This is because I can't wean my wife off of Windows, so I need to be >able to connect a Windows 10 machine to the network. > >I'll start the 3 day backup again. Even if the rdiff-backup backup gets >corrupted at some point, the actual data is still accessible, so it seems >worth the small risk. I'm not sure why my machine closed halfway through, but >whatever the reason, it's unlikely to happen again, so worth a second try IMO. > > >On 22/01/2023 04:52, Robert Nichols wrote: >> On 1/21/23 12:14 PM, Mike Hart wrote: >>> Hi Robert >>> >>> Many thanks for the reply. Your answer explains why there's no activity on >>> the local drive but steady activity on the remote drive (as well as what >>> rdiff-backup is doing, of course). >>> >>> I'm going to delete the lot and start again, but I have a problem deleting >>> the rdiff-backup-data directory >>> >>> below is what happens. I'd be grateful for any solutions. This is Ubuntu >>> 22.04 in case it's not obvious. >>> >>> mike@TV-PC:/media/primary/backups/Mike-PC/Projects$ rm -rfv >>> rdiff-backup-data >>> removed 'rdiff-backup-data/.fuse_hidden0014522e00c4' >>> removed 'rdiff-backup-data/.fuse_hidden0014522f00c1' >>> removed 'rdiff-backup-data/.fuse_hidden00145a7100c2' >>> removed 'rdiff-backup-data/.fuse_hidden00145fa200c3' >>> rm: cannot remove 'rdiff-backup-data': Directory not empty >>> mike@TV-PC:/media/primary/backups/Mike-PC/Projects$ ls rdiff-backup-data >>> mike@TV-PC:/media/primary/backups/Mike-PC/Projects$ ls -la rdiff-backup-data >>> total 804 >>> drwxrwxrwx 1 root root 4096 Jan 21 12:47 . >>> drwxrwxrwx 1 root root 464 Jan 21 04:40 .. >>> -rwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 Jan 21 04:00 .fuse_hidden0014522e00c5 >>> -rwxrwxrwx 1 root root 220862 Jan 21 07:11 .fuse_hidden0014522f00c6 >>> -rwxrwxrwx 1 root root 572052 Jan 21 08:31 .fuse_hidden00145a7100c7 >>> -rwxrwxrwx 1 root root 23842 Jan 21 04:13 .fuse_hidden00145fa200c8 >> >> How are you accessing this server? What OSs are involved. FUSE mounts can >> present some tricky problems. Personally, I'd be deleting the entire >> Projects directory, but I suspect that with everything else gone from the >> rdiff-backup-data directory, rdiff-backup won't find anything to revert and >> will run normally. >>
Re: Can I interrupt an rdiff-backup backup?
Hi Robert Thanks again for your quick response and thanks to Eric also. I took your advice and deleted the whole directory. That worked! It wouldn't have occurred to me that the *rm -rf* command would not work on the rdiff-backup-data directory directly but issued one level up, would work?! Anyway you don't look a gift horse in the mouth :). FYI both the server and the client are running Ubuntu 22.04. It is a Samba network. This is because I can't wean my wife off of Windows, so I need to be able to connect a Windows 10 machine to the network. I'll start the 3 day backup again. Even if the rdiff-backup backup gets corrupted at some point, the actual data is still accessible, so it seems worth the small risk. I'm not sure why my machine closed halfway through, but whatever the reason, it's unlikely to happen again, so worth a second try IMO. On 22/01/2023 04:52, Robert Nichols wrote: On 1/21/23 12:14 PM, Mike Hart wrote: Hi Robert Many thanks for the reply. Your answer explains why there's no activity on the local drive but steady activity on the remote drive (as well as what rdiff-backup is doing, of course). I'm going to delete the lot and start again, but I have a problem deleting the rdiff-backup-data directory below is what happens. I'd be grateful for any solutions. This is Ubuntu 22.04 in case it's not obvious. mike@TV-PC:/media/primary/backups/Mike-PC/Projects$ rm -rfv rdiff-backup-data removed 'rdiff-backup-data/.fuse_hidden0014522e00c4' removed 'rdiff-backup-data/.fuse_hidden0014522f00c1' removed 'rdiff-backup-data/.fuse_hidden00145a7100c2' removed 'rdiff-backup-data/.fuse_hidden00145fa200c3' rm: cannot remove 'rdiff-backup-data': Directory not empty mike@TV-PC:/media/primary/backups/Mike-PC/Projects$ ls rdiff-backup-data mike@TV-PC:/media/primary/backups/Mike-PC/Projects$ ls -la rdiff-backup-data total 804 drwxrwxrwx 1 root root 4096 Jan 21 12:47 . drwxrwxrwx 1 root root 464 Jan 21 04:40 .. -rwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 Jan 21 04:00 .fuse_hidden0014522e00c5 -rwxrwxrwx 1 root root 220862 Jan 21 07:11 .fuse_hidden0014522f00c6 -rwxrwxrwx 1 root root 572052 Jan 21 08:31 .fuse_hidden00145a7100c7 -rwxrwxrwx 1 root root 23842 Jan 21 04:13 .fuse_hidden00145fa200c8 How are you accessing this server? What OSs are involved. FUSE mounts can present some tricky problems. Personally, I'd be deleting the entire Projects directory, but I suspect that with everything else gone from the rdiff-backup-data directory, rdiff-backup won't find anything to revert and will run normally.
Re: Can I interrupt an rdiff-backup backup?
Hi, On 22/01/2023 05:52, Robert Nichols wrote: On 1/21/23 12:14 PM, Mike Hart wrote: Hi Robert Many thanks for the reply. Your answer explains why there's no activity on the local drive but steady activity on the remote drive (as well as what rdiff-backup is doing, of course). I'm going to delete the lot and start again, but I have a problem deleting the rdiff-backup-data directory below is what happens. I'd be grateful for any solutions. This is Ubuntu 22.04 in case it's not obvious. mike@TV-PC:/media/primary/backups/Mike-PC/Projects$ rm -rfv rdiff-backup-data removed 'rdiff-backup-data/.fuse_hidden0014522e00c4' removed 'rdiff-backup-data/.fuse_hidden0014522f00c1' removed 'rdiff-backup-data/.fuse_hidden00145a7100c2' removed 'rdiff-backup-data/.fuse_hidden00145fa200c3' rm: cannot remove 'rdiff-backup-data': Directory not empty mike@TV-PC:/media/primary/backups/Mike-PC/Projects$ ls rdiff-backup-data mike@TV-PC:/media/primary/backups/Mike-PC/Projects$ ls -la rdiff-backup-data total 804 drwxrwxrwx 1 root root 4096 Jan 21 12:47 . drwxrwxrwx 1 root root 464 Jan 21 04:40 .. -rwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 Jan 21 04:00 .fuse_hidden0014522e00c5 -rwxrwxrwx 1 root root 220862 Jan 21 07:11 .fuse_hidden0014522f00c6 -rwxrwxrwx 1 root root 572052 Jan 21 08:31 .fuse_hidden00145a7100c7 -rwxrwxrwx 1 root root 23842 Jan 21 04:13 .fuse_hidden00145fa200c8 How are you accessing this server? What OSs are involved. FUSE mounts can present some tricky problems. Personally, I'd be deleting the entire Projects directory, but I suspect that with everything else gone from the rdiff-backup-data directory, rdiff-backup won't find anything to revert and will run normally. I agree with Robert, this is strange, please provide more information. (on the other hand, if you removed only the `rdiff-backup-data` directory, rdiff-backup will rather complain that the directory isn't a backup repository) cf. https://askubuntu.com/questions/493198/what-is-a-fuse-hidden-file-and-why-do-they-exist and https://serverfault.com/questions/478558/how-to-delete-fuse-hidden-files (somehow related to Samba?). KR, Eric
Re: Can I interrupt an rdiff-backup backup?
On 1/21/23 12:19 PM, Mike Hart wrote: Hi Actually if you don't mind indulging me, I have another question. My intention is to do nightly backups. If one of these failed could it take 3 days to roll back to the previous night? That depends. Let's consider two extreme cases: (A) The machine being backed up is very small, but the backup is being done over a 56 Kb/s dialup connection and it takes 3 days to send the data for that initial, complete backup. (B) There are nearly a billion files totalling nearly 900 terabytes, and just writing that much data to a disk takes 3 days. For case (A) the regression on the server would be quite fast. For case (B) it could take more than the 3 days it took to write the backup originally (and that could be true even for regressing a small incremental backup on that huge archive). -- Bob Nichols "NOSPAM" is really part of my email address. Do NOT delete it.
Re: Can I interrupt an rdiff-backup backup?
On 1/21/23 12:14 PM, Mike Hart wrote: Hi Robert Many thanks for the reply. Your answer explains why there's no activity on the local drive but steady activity on the remote drive (as well as what rdiff-backup is doing, of course). I'm going to delete the lot and start again, but I have a problem deleting the rdiff-backup-data directory below is what happens. I'd be grateful for any solutions. This is Ubuntu 22.04 in case it's not obvious. mike@TV-PC:/media/primary/backups/Mike-PC/Projects$ rm -rfv rdiff-backup-data removed 'rdiff-backup-data/.fuse_hidden0014522e00c4' removed 'rdiff-backup-data/.fuse_hidden0014522f00c1' removed 'rdiff-backup-data/.fuse_hidden00145a7100c2' removed 'rdiff-backup-data/.fuse_hidden00145fa200c3' rm: cannot remove 'rdiff-backup-data': Directory not empty mike@TV-PC:/media/primary/backups/Mike-PC/Projects$ ls rdiff-backup-data mike@TV-PC:/media/primary/backups/Mike-PC/Projects$ ls -la rdiff-backup-data total 804 drwxrwxrwx 1 root root 4096 Jan 21 12:47 . drwxrwxrwx 1 root root 464 Jan 21 04:40 .. -rwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 Jan 21 04:00 .fuse_hidden0014522e00c5 -rwxrwxrwx 1 root root 220862 Jan 21 07:11 .fuse_hidden0014522f00c6 -rwxrwxrwx 1 root root 572052 Jan 21 08:31 .fuse_hidden00145a7100c7 -rwxrwxrwx 1 root root 23842 Jan 21 04:13 .fuse_hidden00145fa200c8 How are you accessing this server? What OSs are involved. FUSE mounts can present some tricky problems. Personally, I'd be deleting the entire Projects directory, but I suspect that with everything else gone from the rdiff-backup-data directory, rdiff-backup won't find anything to revert and will run normally. -- Bob Nichols "NOSPAM" is really part of my email address. Do NOT delete it.
Re: Can I interrupt an rdiff-backup backup?
Hi Robert Many thanks for the reply. Your answer explains why there's no activity on the local drive but steady activity on the remote drive (as well as what rdiff-backup is doing, of course). I'm going to delete the lot and start again, but I have a problem deleting the rdiff-backup-data directory below is what happens. I'd be grateful for any solutions. This is Ubuntu 22.04 in case it's not obvious. mike@TV-PC:/media/primary/backups/Mike-PC/Projects$ rm -rfv rdiff-backup-data removed 'rdiff-backup-data/.fuse_hidden0014522e00c4' removed 'rdiff-backup-data/.fuse_hidden0014522f00c1' removed 'rdiff-backup-data/.fuse_hidden00145a7100c2' removed 'rdiff-backup-data/.fuse_hidden00145fa200c3' rm: cannot remove 'rdiff-backup-data': Directory not empty mike@TV-PC:/media/primary/backups/Mike-PC/Projects$ ls rdiff-backup-data mike@TV-PC:/media/primary/backups/Mike-PC/Projects$ ls -la rdiff-backup-data total 804 drwxrwxrwx 1 root root 4096 Jan 21 12:47 . drwxrwxrwx 1 root root 464 Jan 21 04:40 .. -rwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 Jan 21 04:00 .fuse_hidden0014522e00c5 -rwxrwxrwx 1 root root 220862 Jan 21 07:11 .fuse_hidden0014522f00c6 -rwxrwxrwx 1 root root 572052 Jan 21 08:31 .fuse_hidden00145a7100c7 -rwxrwxrwx 1 root root 23842 Jan 21 04:13 .fuse_hidden00145fa200c8 On 21/01/2023 15:18, Robert Nichols wrote: On 1/21/23 5:29 AM, Mike Hart wrote: Hi I've just started using rdiff-backup (rd-b), which I think is a great program. I started an initial backup that I expected to take about 3 days, but during the night my computer decided to reboot or at least close down the window running rd-b (amongst others). I have re-started rd-b but as far as I can see there is no disk activity at all on the local disk. There does appear to be some activity on the Server (remote disk) which makes me think that rd-b is caught in an infinite loop of some sort. The server is undoing the failed backup. This is a very lengthy operation. Since this is your initial backup, it will be faster to log into the server and simply delete the entire archive for this computer. Unless this "3 days" is just due to a a slow network, this has the potential to be a big problem in the future. If a subsequent incremental backup should fail, the server could take that much time or more to regress the archive to the last successful backup.
Re: Can I interrupt an rdiff-backup backup?
Hi Actually if you don't mind indulging me, I have another question. My intention is to do nightly backups. If one of these failed could it take 3 days to roll back to the previous night? On 21/01/2023 15:18, Robert Nichols wrote: On 1/21/23 5:29 AM, Mike Hart wrote: Hi I've just started using rdiff-backup (rd-b), which I think is a great program. I started an initial backup that I expected to take about 3 days, but during the night my computer decided to reboot or at least close down the window running rd-b (amongst others). I have re-started rd-b but as far as I can see there is no disk activity at all on the local disk. There does appear to be some activity on the Server (remote disk) which makes me think that rd-b is caught in an infinite loop of some sort. The server is undoing the failed backup. This is a very lengthy operation. Since this is your initial backup, it will be faster to log into the server and simply delete the entire archive for this computer. Unless this "3 days" is just due to a a slow network, this has the potential to be a big problem in the future. If a subsequent incremental backup should fail, the server could take that much time or more to regress the archive to the last successful backup.
Re: Can I interrupt an rdiff-backup backup?
On 1/21/23 5:29 AM, Mike Hart wrote: Hi I've just started using rdiff-backup (rd-b), which I think is a great program. I started an initial backup that I expected to take about 3 days, but during the night my computer decided to reboot or at least close down the window running rd-b (amongst others). I have re-started rd-b but as far as I can see there is no disk activity at all on the local disk. There does appear to be some activity on the Server (remote disk) which makes me think that rd-b is caught in an infinite loop of some sort. The server is undoing the failed backup. This is a very lengthy operation. Since this is your initial backup, it will be faster to log into the server and simply delete the entire archive for this computer. Unless this "3 days" is just due to a a slow network, this has the potential to be a big problem in the future. If a subsequent incremental backup should fail, the server could take that much time or more to regress the archive to the last successful backup. -- Bob Nichols "NOSPAM" is really part of my email address. Do NOT delete it.
Re: Can I interrupt an rdiff-backup backup?
Hello Mike, Rdiff-backup is resilient to failure and will recover if the backup process gets interrupted. To help you understand why nothing happens when you start the backup, you might want to increase the verbosity of rdiff-backup by using "-v" something like "-v 5" or "-v 6" should help you understand why rdiff-backup is doing under the hood. On Sat, Jan 21, 2023 at 7:36 AM Mike Hart wrote: > Hi > > I've just started using rdiff-backup (rd-b), which I think is a great > program. I started an initial backup that I expected to take about 3 > days, but during the night my computer decided to reboot or at least > close down the window running rd-b (amongst others). > > I have re-started rd-b but as far as I can see there is no disk activity > at all on the local disk. There does appear to be some activity on the > Server (remote disk) which makes me think that rd-b is caught in an > infinite loop of some sort. > > I do have a log file logging activity that is in a directory that is > being backed up. I mention this in case this could be a cause of problems. > > I am unsure what to do next. Is it ok to crash out of the program? If > I just restart rdb, will it automatically correct the problems? > > Your advice would be much appreciated. > > Regards > Mike Hart > > -- IKUS Software https://www.ikus-soft.com/ 514-971-6442 St-Colomban, QC J5K 1T9
