Re: [rdiff-backup-users] Clarification of --restrict-update-only

[Chris G]

On Thu, Feb 05, 2009 at 11:08:04AM +0000, Dominic wrote:
> Chris G wrote:
>> Stateless except that they need some way of telling their owner that
>> the backup has failed.  In my small LAN situation the backup server
>> runs unattended in the garage, my desktop machine runs all the time
>> and other desktop machine are turned on as required.
>>
>> I *need* to know if the backups to the machine in the garage have
>> failed, I'm not disciplined enough to check manually if the machine
>> is running every day.  Backups can fail if the cable gets
>> disconnected, if the machine dies/loses power, or if the software
>> screws up.  A 'push' backup gives me a pretty foolproof way of
>> checking that does nothing if all is well and sends me a mail message
>> if it's gone wrong.
> Using the pull backup approach, why can't the backup server send you emails 
> if there are problems with the backup?
>
It can, but that is just as dependent on the machine working as the
backup is.  Pull the ethernet cable out and it won't work.


> Or get it to send you a daily email anyway saying what's been happening, 
> and if you don't get it one day, you know something's up.
>
*Not* getting an E-Mail is not a good way to tell myself something is
wrong, unfortunately my mind doesn't work that way round!  :-)

I do look at my Logwatch E-Mails but only occasionally and when I
remember, soemthing like that isn't good for monitoring backups.


> Or get it to scp a small file each day to your main machine(s) indicating 
> that all is well with backups today, and your main machine(s) can check for 
> this daily and send you an email if the file isn't there or if the file 
> contents indicate that there is a problem?
>
Yes, there are various ways of doing this (plus nagios etc.) but they
all introduce more complexity and thus ways of failing.  I'm looking
for the simplest possible way of doing it that's reasonably fail-safe.

It looks as if what I have plus the --restrict-update-only should get
me to about where I want to be.

-- 
Chris Green