[Box Backup] Box backup and rotating media

[Ben Summers]

On 1 Dec 2005, at 11:02, Eelco Jepkema wrote:

> * Ben Summers <ben@fluffy.co.uk> [2005-12-01 11:37]:
>> You need to keep the encryption keys from the client.
>>
>> Read the documentation on the web site or wiki, let us know what we
>> need to improve if it doesn't answer your questions.
>
> I have read the documentation (ofcourse :P) but I still have a  
> question
> that i couldn't find on the Wiki or documentation. Again, I may  
> just be
> blind as a bat :).
>
> How does Box Backup handle open files. I ask this because I would like
> to be able to make backups of entire clients, not just specific disks.
> I'd like to be able to create cron-jobs on the clients that backup the
> entire /.

With any backup system, I would think that just backing up the data  
would be a better plan. You do have an easy way to create new blank  
machines, don't you?

> This means that files could be "locked" and I was wondering
> how Box backup goes about handling those situations. If i can  
> backup the
> entire filesystem it would be possible to recreate an entire client
> machine by just plugging a harddisk into another computer with Box  
> backup
> installed and restoring to that disk, then plugging the harddisk in  
> the
> machine and rebooting. This would be an ideal situation as it would
> enable me to restore an entire machine including its configuration  
> in a
> matter of hours.

That should be possible. But as you've been advised, it's worth doing  
a dummy run before relying on it, just to make sure you've designed  
your system correctly.

>
> Also, on a side note, samba share files might be locked by users that
> have the file open from a network share for instance.

Locking is only advisory on UNIX. So the only problem is potentially  
backing up files which are being modified at the time. However, lazy  
mode waits for a few hours after the last modification time to avoid  
this issue.

Ben