On 10/3/06, Ryan Simpkins <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
I'm flagging this slightly off topic just because it has Windows XP in the subject line and I want help - not a bonfire. My problem: I have a Windows XP (sp2) box chock full of about 60GB of files I want to backup. I want to store several days worth of backups on to a 200GB hard drive in a Linux box (Debian) located in another city. My data doesn't change all that often - maybe 10-50MB/day. I want the backups to be 100% automatic requiring no human interaction unless something breaks. The ideal would be to keep two weeks worth of backups. I want to do this securely so it can happen over a public network (the Internet). The way I want to do it: Rsync snapshots would be ideal. I do this with all my Linux boxen and it is awesome. It only transfers what is needed, it is fast, and I don't have to worry about it much at all. It meets all of the above requirements - just for Linux, not Windows.
I set up precisely this solution on the home LAN of a family member. I backup three winXP boxen to one linux box. I use a push method where I have the Windows task scheduler thingy call a batch file, which calls a bash script running in cygwin. The bash scipt runs a prep command on the linux box, rsyncs over the deltas, then runs a snapshot rotate command on the linux box. What I ran in to:
So, thinking rsync was the perfect solution I loaded up cygwin on XP and got ssh working and installed rsync. Well, apparently there is an issue with XP SP2 that makes it so this doesn't work right. What rsync would do would copy down a ton of directories, but no files. Eventually it would get to a random spot and just hang. Googling revealed this is essentially a bug in cygwin on XP SP2 that will be fixed just as soon as there is an experienced enough coder with the time & desire enough to fix it.
This sounds similar to a problem I had. I solved it by a 'set CYGWIN=nontsec' in my .bat file prior to calling bash. Once I did that, it all works wonderfully (also on XP SP2). http://www.itefix.no/phpws<http://www.itefix.no/phpws/index.php?module=faq&FAQ_op=view&FAQ_id=12> /index.php?module=faq&FAQ_op<http://www.itefix.no/phpws/index.php?module=faq&FAQ_op=view&FAQ_id=12> =view&FAQ_id=12<http://www.itefix.no/phpws/index.php?module=faq&FAQ_op=view&FAQ_id=12> What I want:
Alternative ideas from you. Is there something like rsync that plays better with XP? I want to do some form of snapshotting so it is very fast. I want it to be automated. I want the file/backup server to run Linux. I want to use FOSS or freeware if possible. Now maybe this is just a knowledge thing. I do this so easily between two Linux boxen across the Internet. Is there really no easy method to accomplish the same task in Windows?
I can give you my scripts off-list if you like. /* PLUG: http://plug.org, #utah on irc.freenode.net Unsubscribe: http://plug.org/mailman/options/plug Don't fear the penguin. */
