Re: [rdiff-backup-users] Safe to mirror backup dir with rsync?

[Cybertinus]

Hello,

I'm using rdiff-backup to create the backups of my directories. It all
goes to /backup, which is a external harddrive. Then I'm using rsync to
mirror everything to /backup_sync, which is a second external harddrive.
This one is encrypted and I move it to an external location once a week
(and the disk from the external location then becomes the sync disk ;)
). I'm using this strategy because when I swap the sync disks, they are
disconnected from my computer for a day. Some data I'm backing up every
hour, so I need a external drive at my computer at all times.
This system is working perfectly for me. The only thing I would
recommend is to prevent running rdiff-backup at the same time as rsync.
To prevent that your mirror is accidentally destroyed, because you would
by rsyncing incomplete rdiff-backup data. I haven't build in this
precaution in my backupscripts yet. For the time being I'm preventing it
from running at the same moment by choosing the correct times in my
cronjobs.

Cheers,
Cybertinus

On 23/12/09 00:03, Gavin wrote:
> Hi Engel,
>
> Yes rsync would work for this but if you are connecting to a server that
> has or can have rdiff-backup on it you may as well run
> rdiff-backup to that server and then again for the local copy. All from
> the original files.
>
> I rdiff-backup all my home and server boxes to a /backup partition on
> one machine.
> Then rsync /backup to an encrypted portable hard drive.
> I also run with box A keeps box B's backups while box B keeps box A's
> backups.
>
> Naturally rsync must complete successfully for the mirror to be a mirror
> but rsync can recover from interruptions.
> This is why rsync is often used to start an rdiff-backup repository.
> Check out backupninja for setting up such backup systems.
>
> Cheers
> Gavin
>
> Engel Sanchez wrote:
>   
>> Hello. I tried searching for this in the mailing list, but could not find a 
>> definitive answer to my question, so...  I am using rdiff-backup to backup 
>> to a local directory.  I would like to have this backup mirrored to another 
>> server (and potentially mirrored a third time to another server with a 
>> portable hard drive attached). Is it safe (and recommended) to just use 
>> rsync for the mirror of the backup directory? What if rsync fails to finish 
>> a session? Will the mirror of the backup directory end up in a consistent 
>> state such that I can restore from it if necessary?  If this is not 
>> feasible, then I might try to simply run rdiff-backup from the remote server 
>> from the original files and not the local backup. But I would prefer to 
>> mirror the first backup if possible. Thanks in advance for any help/advice.
>>
>>  Engel A. Sanchez
>>
>>
>> “Do what you love to do and give it your very best. Whether it's business or 
>> baseball, or the theater, or any field. If you don't love what you're doing 
>> and you can't give it your best, get out of it. Life is too short. You'll be 
>> an old man before you know it.”
>>
>>
>> http://engelsanchez.net
>>
>>
>>
>>       
>>
>>
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>>   
>>     
>
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