backup pc and windows client

[anandx]

http://www.howtoforge.com/linux_backuppc

Hi,

I am trying to evaluate if backuppc can serve right for my needs. We wish to backup approx 50 windows pc onto a linux server. Now as per the howto located at http://www.howtoforge.com/linux_backuppc, the windows pc need to share the drives, which is where I have a problem. Is there a way we can backup the windows pc without sharing their drives ? Something like rsync over windows ?

Any help would be really appreciated.

Thanks.

[falko]

Yes, you can do that, but AFAIK, you must install Cygwin on the Windows clients. I haven't tried that.

[marchost]

I dont see how rsync would be more secure that shared drive or folder with password (on windows..).

[anandx]

Originally Posted by marchost

I dont see how rsync would be more secure that shared drive or folder with password (on windows..).

Its not about security here, my problem is that i can't share the data on the network even with a password.

What i wish to do is take backups which are being pushed from the client side, since the client machines are not always on. Anyways i am looking at Amanda and BackupPC, whichever helps to achieve the target.

[rrhode]

Hi,

I would guess you would already have seen this but maybe not and since I was playing with BackupPC just now myself I figured I would post it.

http://backuppc.sourceforge.net/faq/BackupPC.html

About a quarter of the way down at Step 5: Client Setup it explains more.

Ryan

[rrhode]

I found something else which you would probably like. If a machine is turned off I am guessing it would turn that into a partial backup. When the machine turns back on it can start from that partial backup.

http://backuppc.sourceforge.net/faq/...partialagemax_

[anandx]

Originally Posted by rrhode

Hi,

I would guess you would already have seen this but maybe not and since I was playing with BackupPC just now myself I figured I would post it.

http://backuppc.sourceforge.net/faq/BackupPC.html

About a quarter of the way down at Step 5: Client Setup it explains more.

Ryan

Originally Posted by rrhode

I found something else which you would probably like. If a machine is turned off I am guessing it would turn that into a partial backup. When the machine turns back on it can start from that partial backup.

http://backuppc.sourceforge.net/faq/...partialagemax_

Thanks for the pointers. I am already working on setting up backuppc under virtual machine. If it succeeds, i will then try and implement it in production.

For the benefit of others here are the problems which i was facing problems with and have found solution with backuppc.

1. Use of rsync instead of smb: There is a package on backuppc sf page, which is basically an optimised rsync+cygwin for backuppc itself.
2. Mobile Users: Many users are mobile users and many users don't switch on the PC at the same time, so how to take backup of them when they connect to the network. BackupPC can check when a client gets connected through the config (an entire dhcp ip range can be provided to it). It basically keeps checking when a client gets connected and then sees if backup needs to be scheduled. Based on this, the client is scheduled for backup.
3. DHCP Users: The entire network is dhcp based. Backuppc has builtin feature to specify the dhcp range, and can thus keep a track of all PC's.

The above sorts out more or less all the problems which i was facing with a backup solution. Now its time to try it out on a virtual machine, if it works as desired, it would be backuppc all the way