Hi Bill
Glad to hear someone else is interested in this. At the moment I don't
have a solid solution, except to use it to make images stored on a samba
share that Backuppc swings by and hits once in awhile.
One of the problems with using this technique is the size. Because its
an image and because each image is unique, theres no option for pooling
and theres no opportunity to do an incremental backup (obviously).
I wrote the devs about command-line arguments so I could script a
scheduled backup - and was told that they'd release a version in the
next few days that you could schedule with the MS scheduling agent. Not
ideal but good enough I guess.
At present I'm using this in combination with the built-in windows
backup client. Both backup to a samba share that Backuppc then sweeps
by and hits once in awhile. Again the problems there are the sizes. To
mitigate it, the samba shares aren't on the clients, they're on the
server. What I mean is, I've setup samba on the backuppc server and
have the windows clients mount the samba share. I then have DriveImage
XML and the Windows client stash their backup data on that samba share
and once in awhile I'll have backuppc back itself up and catch it. This
is a far from ideal scenario.
But thats neither here nor there. The shadowcopy function is the
ticket. If theres a way to leverage that, many doors open for us.
Scott Gamble
Bill Hudacek wrote:
I for one am very interested in this. All approaches I've used, coded,
seen on the 'net or just heard about failed to be able to access files
"in use".
Usually, the author(s) of backup/mirroring software issue a plaintive
appeal to their users for someone to come up with a solution. I'd never
seen one until I read yoru message, Scott.
This looks like it might be at least feasible - but is it workable?
Note that a) it's windows, and b) it's client-side only (for BackupPC
anyway), which means it would need to be "fitted" to work with/within
rsync (which is already a bit enhanced for backuppc use, I gather, but I
don't use this, I use SMB [and now CIFS since Kernel 2.6.x has totally
*borked* SMB support]), and I'm not sure at all how the volume shadow
copy service could be brought to bear on such pure SMB or CIFS access.
I'm not a developer of BackupPC and I don't know anything about "VSS" at
this point, so I'll just step aside now and wait with you for other
opinions, Scott :-)
Bill Hudacek
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
Sorry to hit the list with this but once in awhile I wander back to see
if theres been any new developments on this topic and to share what
little I find on this topic as I go.
I just found an excellent (and free) imaging and backup application for
XP called Driveimage XML that will create a vendor-neutral image of a
machine WHILE ITS IN USE. The problem where Windows won't let you touch
files that are in use, this application skates past by taking advantage
of a feature built into XP called VSS - Volume Shadow Copy Service.
Evidently you can configure VSS on a XP machine to behave in all kinds
of ways, but even if you do not, XP is still using a stripped down
version of VSS in its normal day to day operations. When Driveimage XML
runs into a file thats in use, it automatically takes advantage of this,
grabs the shadow copy instead, and keeps on going without hiccup.
As you know, both Rsync/Cygwin and Samba won't let you touch files on a
windows machine that are in use by other applications, thus preventing a
full system backup by Backuppc. If Samba, Rsync, or some other client
were configured to behave in the same way and take advantage of VSS,
could this not provide the means to do a complete backup of windows
machines by Backuppc? I could be mistaken but I believe Backula is
using this same technique to handle windows machines with alot of
success.
I'm not a coder - I don't actually know how to go about this - I wish I
did because I would totally dive into this if it were within my means to
do so.
So I guess I'm approaching the community with this to find out if
A.) Its been done yet
B.) If this idea has any merit
C.) Is there any chance anyone wants to work on it?
Ideally it'd be excellent if there was a Backuppc "client" for windows
that ran in the system tray that contained rsync configured to use VSS
or something. I'm just dreaming here is all.
Okay, heres the link to the Driveimage XML app. I'm not promoting this
app so much as I am using it as reference for possible methods in which
to address the issue of getting Backuppc to effectively backup Windows
machines. And if theres something already out there that addresses this
and I've managed to miss it, be kind to me eh?
http://www.download.com/DriveImage-XML/3000-2242_4-10457321.html?tag=lst-0-1
http://www.runtime.org/products.htm
Thanks all
Scott Gamble
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