[Box Backup] rsync:ing the backup storage?

[Chris Wilson]

Hi Magnus,

On Sun, 2 Dec 2007, Magnus Homann wrote:

> I have bbackupd and bbstored running on the sam (one) machine, letting 
> bbstored play with a separate disc.
> 
> Right now I 'rsync -av --stats' the complete backup storage to off-site.
> 
> Should i turn off bbstored while rsyncing, or is that not needed?

It's not essential, but because rsync doesn't lock the account that it's 
backing up, you could get an inconsistent copy of a file if rsync copies 
it while the client is writing to it.

The safest thing to do is to stop bbstored, but of course this may not be 
convenient. Next best is to create and lock the write.lock file in each 
account as you copy that account.

I have a feeling that it's safe anyway, as bbstored creates a new version 
of the file being updated and then renames it over the old one when the 
update is complete, so you shoulnd't get any corrupt files even if they 
are being modified. However, I'm not 100% sure about that.

If you do get an inconsistent copy, then it will be repaired automatically 
on the next backup run.

Cheers, Chris.
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