Re: [rdiff-backup-users] Resuming failed backups

[Greg Freemyer]

On Tue, Mar 10, 2009 at 11:22 AM, Josh Nisly <address@hidden> wrote:
> I have a number of clients backing up over slow internet links. Because of
> the inherent flakiness of public internet connections, it can be frustrating
> when the client dumps a large set of new data in a folder that is being
> backed up. If the backup fails partway through, rdiff-backup regresses the
> destination to the last good backup, throwing away any data the client has
> uploaded. Since rdiff-backup now supports resuming initial backups, this
> seems like the Achilles' heel of rdiff-backup over slow connections.
>
> I believe strongly in rdiff-backup's idea of consistent "snapshots"; I don't
> think that it should tie off a partial backup. Instead, I think it should
> simply keep the uploaded files outside of the backup set and use them in the
> next backup.
>
> Here is what I propose: when regressing a repository prior to a backup,
> rdiff-backup takes all "new" files (files that have been added during the
> failed backup) and moves them to a temporary location inside of the
> rdiff-backup-data folder. Then, when the backup runs, if it encounters a new
> file, it first checks to see if the file exists in this temporary location,
> and if it does, it diffs against that file (or moves it to the target
> location, then diffs; I don't know which would be easier). At the end of any
> backup run, rdiff-backup empties out this folder.
>
> Thoughts/reactions?
>
> Thanks,
> JoshN

Josh,

What I do is have rdiff-backup create/maintain a backup repository on
a local drive.  Then use standard rsync to replicate the backup
repository to a remote server.

That way if I have a major issue I can access my local backup quickly
and I don't have to worry about slow transmission speeds.

If there is a disaster and I loose an entire server room, etc. then I
can get my data from the remote once I have somewhere to pull it back
to.

I have a few large files I backup, so I use the rsync options to
resume a transfer even in the middle of a file.

HTH
Greg
-- 
Greg Freemyer
Litigation Triage Solutions Specialist
http://www.linkedin.com/in/gregfreemyer
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