[Box Backup] Backing up to mounted network storage

[Chris Wilson]

Hi Greg,

On Mon, 5 May 2008, Greg Bolshaw wrote:

> I am considering mounting network storage (NFS or Samba) to be used as a 
> Box Backup data store. The volume would be connected by 100Mb ethernet. 
> Are there any extra precautions to be taken with such a setup? Also, 
> would it be recommended to run the same setup but instead over a 10Mb 
> VPN?

This setup is not recommended because:

* You lose the bandwidth efficiency of Box Backup (which exists only 
  between bbackupd and bbstored). Running over the VPN is particularly 
  likely to have poor performance.

* Many NAS devices, particularly cheap ones, are very slow

* The necessary POSIX semantics for safe operation of bbstored, e.g. 
  allowing renaming over existing files (atomic replace), may not work 
  correctly, particularly on an SMB server.

However, if you're willing to take the risks and compare regularly, it 
might work OK.

bbstored was designed to be lightweight and to run on embedded systems, so 
if your NAS device is an open system and runs a POSIX operating system you 
may find that you can successfully run bbstored on the NAS itself.

Cheers, Chris.
-- 
_____ __     _
\  __/ / ,__(_)_  | Chris Wilson <0000 at qwirx.com> - Cambs UK |
/ (_/ ,\/ _/ /_ \ | Security/C/C++/Java/Ruby/Perl/SQL Developer |
\ _/_/_/_//_/___/ | We are GNU : free your mind & your software |