Looking for Linux rsync know how

[lovingHDTV]

I'm hoping that one of you Linux dudes can help me out.

 

I just upgraded to UnRAid 4.0 so that I can get the ryncd.

 

What I want to do is to be able to have my backup server rsync to my unRaid box and backup some of the drives.

 

I tried a couple things with rsyncd but did not get anywere.

 

I tried starting it via:

 

rsync --daemon -config=/boot/config/rsyncd.config

 

I create a config file that looks like:

 

log file = /var/log/rsyncd.log

 

[test]

        path = /mnt/disk2/test

        comment = test dir

 

 

But now what?  I could not get rsync to do anything.  Here is what the log file says:

 

2007/05/18 12:40:41 [3448] rsync on test from adsl-xx-xx-251-149.dsl.pltn13.sbclobal.net (xx.xx.251.149)

 

But nothing happend.

 

Suggestions?

 

thanks,

David

[lovingHDTV]

Well with enough futsing around I got this all working.

 

I now have BackupPC from my brothers home, backing up my UnRaid via rsync!

 

I've been wanting to get this done for sometime.

 

BTW. the upgrade to Version 4.0 took all of 5 minutes to do and it is running quite well now.

 

Now on to ssh so I can wrap the rsync inside ssh. . .

 

dave

[coppit]

I'll write up a blog post that explains how you can get space-optimized snapshot backups using hard links. I'm waiting on sshd or rshd support so that I can automate the "mv" command from the client machine. I've written some scripts to help with the backup, including one that rotates the backups using powers-of-2 retention.

[teamhood]

would love to see a how-to on this. I could see this being very intersting... I would be really interested to see if I could get my parents computers setup to backup to my unraid server from their home.... that would be awesome

[Bossman]

I'll write up a blog post that explains how you can get space-optimized snapshot backups using hard links. I'm waiting on sshd or rshd support so that I can automate the "mv" command from the client machine. I've written some scripts to help with the backup, including one that rotates the backups using powers-of-2 retention.

 

Another feature that would be an amazing addition to the GUI

[Hooked4Life]

would love to see a how-to on this. I could see this being very intersting... I would be really interested to see if I could get my parents computers setup to backup to my unraid server from their home.... that would be awesome

 

My dad's HD just died on his pc. This would have been the perfect tool to have in place.

[Billped]

would love to see a how-to on this. I could see this being very intersting... I would be really interested to see if I could get my parents computers setup to backup to my unraid server from their home.... that would be awesome

 

My dad's HD just died on his pc. This would have been the perfect tool to have in place.

 

I don't understand why this is a good idea.  Maybe I am missing something.  A better solution is local backup and the reason is speed - not Unraid's speed, the speed of your broadband connection.  Remember, the limitation is the UP speed, not DOWN.

 

Example, if you have a 200GB hard drive that is half full, it would take a few weeks to push that data through a typical DSL or cable modem connection vs. a few hours on a USB connected harddrive.  My "3Mbps" DSL is only about 256Kb/sec for uploads or ~25KB/sec.  Just divide 100,000,000K (100GB) by 25K then by 3600 (seconds per hour) then by 24 (hours per day) and 7 (days per week) and the answer is 6.6 WEEKS.  If you have 1Mb/sec upload speed, it is still 1.6 weeks.  All of this math assumes no compression, but that offers perhaps another 2-3X of effective speed, so you are still looking at "weeks" with a 256Kbps upload speed.  I am also doing the math for the first backup, incrementals would be less.

 

I currently back up about 1GB of data to Mozy every week and it takes many hours, so my math is reasonable.

 

 

Bill

[coppit]

Bill,

 

You're right about the initial backup. But incrementals are very fast with rsync. It computes diffs and can send them compressed.

 

I've been holding off on posting my code and HOWTO document because of two things: (1) rsh on unRAID still doesn't work, (2) there's a bug in rsync regarding hard links. This means my current solution requires you to telnet into the unRAID server to manually run some commands, and the backups take up a lot of space and time because they are not incremental.

 

David

[Billped]

Good info - thanks.

 

 

Bill