backup the entire server

[Les Mikesell]

On Thu, 2005-04-14 at 12:22, Claude Jones wrote:
> >
> Contrary to the subject line, BackupPC doesn't NOT back up the entire server, 
> at least in WindowsLand. All files that are locked, which include things like 
> your Outlook .pst file, and many operating system files, will NOT be backed 
> up. I am too new to Linux to know how this issue plays out in the Linux 
> world.

It backs up what the operating system allows you to back up.  Windows
locks open files by default.  Linux doesn't.

>  I hope some one with greater programming skills than I, gets motivated 
> to write some code to challenge Acronis; Acronis uses some form of 
> 'drive-sector' technology to get around this problem, and they can do entire 
> server backups of Windows machines while the server is live and running; one 
> caveat here is servers that run databases, and in this case, there was a 
> requirement to stop the db while a 'snapshot' was taken - in the latest 
> versions of their server version there is supposed to be scripting included 
> that will allow you to automate stop/starts of db's to allow the snapshots. 

While Linux will allow backup programs to read open files, it can't
do anything to make sure that their state is consistent or usable.
Backuppc does have the ability to execute pre/post backup commands and
I think some people are using those to stop databases and make LVM
snapshots, then perform the backup on the snapshot with the database
running again.

> In any event, I wanted to add these comments to this discussion, lest anyone 
> get the idea that these sorts of backups will allow a complete restoration to 
> a working system by a simple 'restore' - they won't. 

Besides having the web-browsable file archive, backuppc can give back a
tar image of whatever you backed up.  While you might not call it simple
to restore a bootable, runnable system from a tar image, it is certainly
possible for a Linux box.  On windows you won't get open files, the
registry, or ACL's included in the backup so you can't restore to bare
metal.  It is still possible to do something like a scheduled database
dump to a file before the backup run and have backuppc pick up and
compress that file, keeping however many copies you want it to save.

-- 
  Les Mikesell
   les at futuresource.com