Emulate Mirra backup server with old Junk

T

tradbourne

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Nov 4, 2005
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Could I create a Mirra - like backup server with old junk laying around.

What software does Mirra use? (Is it Linux based?)

(I have about 6 computers that are starting to get some serious number of digital photos that need a reliable backup system)

Tim
 
You can set up a similar type of system using "rsync". This would allow you to keep multiple snapshots of your photos directory, in date-named directories. Then if you make a mistake editing or whatever, you can pull the copy from yesterday out and start from that.

Rsync is available on Windows and Linux. Either way, it can work.

 
This is neat. Not being a linux guy, I will have to do some learning.
All of my stuff is WinXP Pro. Can I do it completely without a linux server?

I've checked out :
http://sync2nas.sourceforge.net/
but is seems to want to work with a Linux server.

The ultimate would be an hourly, daily, weekly, monthly snapshot system where multiple versions of the same file were available to protect from that worst nightmare, user error....

regards
Tim
 
1) http://www.mikerubel.org/computers/rsync_snapshots/
2) http://winrsync.sunsite.dk/
3) http://sources.redhat.com/cygwin/

1) That's the guide for doing it under Linux. It uses "hard links" to conserve space - instead of keeping a copy of file01.jpg for today, yesterday, etc, it keeps one with filesystem links to it so that you don't keep (size of stuff) * (number of copies) MB of stuff around, but rather (size of stuff) + (size of changes made) MB, which is usually a lot less.

You can do this entirely with Windows and scheduled tasks, but it's a bit of a hassle. As long as you plan to use a dedicated box anyways, I'd put Fedora Core or a similar relatively easy Linux on it and do it right.

2) and 3) are links to rsync for windows. 2) is a more standalone-type approach, 3) is more or less an integrated solution for doing unix-type things on Windows.

The simplest way to do this would be to mount the shares you want backed up onto your backup server, and set up a scheduled task to rsync everything every 3 hours or something. I have no experience with Scheduled Tasks, but it should be possible.

 
The windows scheduler is cake.
And from what I've seen - cron in linux is almost as easy.
Pure cron is cmd line, isn't it???
But KDE has a windowed cron.

Or if you just want a really good sync program that has it's own scheduler and is windows based, try goodsync

It has a lot of options and can be set to sync on changes to files, on schedule, on logout, on mount for pen drives / usb drives, and other options.

I wouldn't use it for making full system images, it's not a substitute for ghost, but it's great for data and working files.

 
good sync is awesome and will i have to try out tonite with my home network. i use dantz backup software for my harddrives and acronis to image my C drive once a month all onto my external HDD.
 
Let us know how GoodSync works out. It sounds like a real easy to implement solution, but not sure if I can make it do snapshots yet.

Example of hourly, daily, weekly, monthly snapshots: The backup system stores the structure of the backup, but not duplicated data. You might have 4 hourly generations kept, 4 daily generations, 3 weekly generations, and 6 monthly generations. (unhappy mage posted a way to do this with rsync here: http://www.mikerubel.org/computers/rsync_snapshots/)

regards
Tim
 
tradbourne said:
Let us know how GoodSync works out. It sounds like a real easy to implement solution, but not sure if I can make it do snapshots yet.

Example of hourly, daily, weekly, monthly snapshots: The backup system stores the structure of the backup, but not duplicated data. You might have 4 hourly generations kept, 4 daily generations, 3 weekly generations, and 6 monthly generations. (unhappy mage posted a way to do this with rsync here: http://www.mikerubel.org/computers/rsync_snapshots/)

regards
Tim
Click to expand...

It works well for my pen drives.

The rules would have to be nested to prevent you from using 4 X data amout of space for your example.

Both apps are free so give them a try and see which one works for you.

 
too bad good sync doesnt allow you to schedual events. thats wat i really need and also for it to b able to sync multiple drives in 1 run.
 
chronic9 said:
too bad good sync doesnt allow you to schedual events. thats wat i really need and also for it to b able to sync multiple drives in 1 run.
Click to expand...

It can do both of those.....
Scheduling.....check the options for each job you create.....it's got 2 options.
1. every XXtime - this has options for minutes hours days weeks and month.
2. At the bottom ot the options it lets you run the Windows Scheduler for a seperate event.

As far as syncing multiple drives in one run....
A drive is the same as a folder to goodsync. I'm syncing 4 folders across 2 drives on my work computer and 3 folders across the network. to do it all at the same time I just click "Analyze All" and then "Syncronize All". And it does it all right then. Then it returns to it's schedules or whatever.

Luck

 
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