[Box Backup] Couple of first time user questions

[Ben Summers]

On 5 Nov 2004, at 07:26, Chris Hane wrote:

>
> I have just started to look at modernizing our backup solution as we 
> move from windows servers to Linux servers.  Currently we are backing 
> up around 200+ GB to tape.  We are looking to move away from tape.  I 
> like what I have read of boxbackup so far even though I just started 
> to play around with boxbackup.  I have a couple of quick questions if 
> you would indulge me.
>
> - When I read through the docs, they show how to configure the RAID 
> array and the config file name is raidfile.conf.  I'm assuming this is 
> raidtools?

No, it's built in software raid. No external dependencies.

>  We are just now experimenting with RAID and was thinking of using the 
> mdadm (Linux).  Will boxbackup work with mdadm or will it only work 
> with the version of RAID supported by raidtools?

Use the raidfile-config script to set up a non-RAID set, but locate it 
on a hardware / software RAID partition.

>  Also, is there a difference as too which RAID level is used?  3?  5?

The built in software RAID uses 3 discs to do RAID 5.

>
> - I read through the several of the past emails and wanted to ask 
> about the current thoughts around Primary/Secondary backup servers.  I 
> would very much like to have two different physical machines (separate 
> locations) for disaster recovery.
>
> - In the interim until Primary/Secondary support is added to 
> boxbackup, is there another solution that can be used to backup the 
> backup?  I remember reading something about being able to use 
> rsync.....

I suggest you run bbstored on the primary machine, and then use rsync 
to copy the store to the secondary machine. If the primary fails, you 
can then run bbstored on the secondary machine to get access to the 
data.

If rsync copies inconsistent stores (ie if it happens to transfer in 
the middle of a sync, for example), then you can use "bbstoreaccounts 
check 123456 fix" to sort the problems out if you ever need to recover. 
(But don't run this on a cron job or anything, as it will cause more 
problems with the data changing under rsync.)


Actually, maybe I could implement a "post connect" feature so that 
bbstored runs a script when a client disconnects after a writable 
session. You could then use this to fire off a rsync command to get the 
changes to the secondary server, which would go a long way to avoid the 
inconsistency issue... I think I might add that actually.


>
> As a note, our environment when fully rolled out will be:
> - 3 file servers (200+ GB) (this is what we are experimenting with 
> first for different backup solutions)
> - 1 production application server (30-50 GB)
> - 20-30 desktops (windows based so will be waiting for the windows 
> client port :)
> - 5-10 laptops (windows also)
> - 5 Mac OSX machines

Sounds a decent sized setup, well within the capabilities of the system.

You should be aware that the Mac OS X port doesn't back up resource 
forks. However, I intend to implement this soon as I'd rather like to 
have it, and the multiple stream support will help the Win32 native 
port.

Ben