> [...] > > - What will be the benefits of this clients compared to rsync/smb or tar > > transfer methods? > > It will be similar to rsync but significantly faster (since it will > be native C code at both ends, and doens't use cygwin on WinXX) and > it will provide a path for ACLs and other meta data to be backed up.
This is wonderfull news :-) Will it be installed as a service on windows (and unix) In that cas, it would allow to avoid storing clear text passwords. In terms of security it's little progress. I know that if the secret key is stolen, then you can push a setuidbitted shell or any stuff you need to hack the box, but that way, you don't have to setup an admin account in a domain, and thus it's easyer to setup security. If it's a service, a wonderfull feature would be to be able to handle NTFS encrypted files provided that a correct pfx file is present in the server config. For example, if file belongs to user1, then request the user1.pfx file from server and read the file. Having the file backed-up unencryted is not dramatic; the main reason to encrypt files on a laptop is to handle the situation when the laptop is stolen. Code to do this could be learned from the "ntfsdecrypt" command present in the ntfsprogs V1.11.2 (changeLog explaining this feature: http://sourceforge.net/project/shownotes.php?release_id=347719) > > - Will it be able to backup opened files on windows? > > I hope so, but that is up to Roy. that would be a great feature indeed :) > > - Will it be able to handle sparse files? > > No. In that case, will it be able to create a sparse file when restoring a file with lots of zero in it? > > - Will it help to add rdiff binary feature to backuppc so that PST > > files won't be restransfered completely again only if a few bytes > > have changed. (Altis is able to manage that, and right now, the only > > 2 showstoppers that prevent my company to see BackupPC as a viable > > alternative to altiris is that BackupPC cannot backup opened files > > and is transfering (and storing) a whole file even if a small part > > has been modified) > > BackupPC's rsync already behaves this way. yes I've understood that it behave that way for network transfer, but for storage on disk I thought it was difficult to implement regarding the current way BackupPC works. > > And the big question: > > Why reinventing the wheel while the bacula guys have already written a > > client (bacula-fd) which is multi platform and is able to backup windows > > opened files? Couldn't it be used instead or adapted? Can't there be a > > cooperation between both projects? > > I haven't looked at bacula that closely. It does look like a > comprehensive system. The addition of VSS support to allow open > file backup is a very nice recent innovation. The hope is to > adopt that to Roy's backuppcd development. That would be definitely a great feature :-) > Using bacula-fd is certainly possible. However, I don't know whether > it supports rsync-style diffs (since it is tape backup based), so > other than the open-file backup (which we hope to add to BackupPC), > I don't know what additional benefits it would provide compares to > tar, smb or rsync. I agree with you that it may not support rsync-style diffs, and if BackupPCd supports backing up openned files, I see almost no more interrest in using bacula-fd (more over, having cross project features could be difficult to handle in case of a bug. An example would be a crash of bacula-fd that could be the result of a bad usage from backuppc that triggers a situation in bacula-fd that cannot happen with bacula-dir) If my memory is correct though, I remember that bacula is able to handle somewhat sparse files (if size of file different from size on disk, then assume it is a sparse file then zero a assumed to be sparse). Many thanks for your answer, BackupPC is realy a great project :-) Best regards, -- Olivier LAHAYE Motorola Labs IT manager Saclay, FRANCE ------------------------------------------------------- SF.Net email is Sponsored by the Better Software Conference & EXPO September 19-22, 2005 * San Francisco, CA * Development Lifecycle Practices Agile & Plan-Driven Development * Managing Projects & Teams * Testing & QA Security * Process Improvement & Measurement * http://www.sqe.com/bsce5sf _______________________________________________ BackupPC-users mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/backuppc-users http://backuppc.sourceforge.net/
