Re: [rdiff-backup-users] Re: rdiff-backup for email

[roland]

> One problem with backups of stuff that is rapidly in flux (eg. email)
> is getting the stuff to be backed up to stay still while it is backed
> up. :-) Otherwise rdiff-backup may fail, or at best will not make a
> perfect backup.

that`s a very typical  backup problem, not related to rdiff backup but to 
most other backup tools, too.
whatever you are backing up, you need to make sure that it doesn`t change 
while the backup is running.
shutdown services for backup, export data to a "point in time" consistent 
state, put your oracle-db into backup mode....

> I've been using LVM's snapshot facility for this, but it is not
> perfect, since it seems to have problems with larger volumes with
> rapidly changing amounts of data.

yes - have seen removing of snapshots fail when testing lvm, and so didn`t 
use it for a while.

> What are other people doing about this?

following development of the hotcakes project at 
http://code.google.com/p/hotcakes/
very cool stuff: new snapshot variant and you can replicate your snapshots 
to a different box - sort of SAN capability.

regards
roland



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Faheem Mitha" <address@hidden>
To: <address@hidden>
Sent: Saturday, November 11, 2006 2:15 AM
Subject: [rdiff-backup-users] Re: rdiff-backup for email


> Meant to send this to the list...
>
>                           Faheem.
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> Date: Fri, 10 Nov 2006 17:10:07 -0500
> To: Michael Simms <address@hidden>
> Subject: Re: rdiff-backup for email
>
> In gmane.comp.sysutils.backup.rdiff-backup.general, you wrote:
> > Hello,
> >
> > I'm new to the list, and to rdiff-backup. We're looking at alternatives
> > for backing up email. It's currently 3TB, and growing quickly. Is anyone
> > out there backing up email, or other 'mission critical' data with
> > rdiff-backup?
>
> Hi,
>
> I've been using rdiff-backup to backup several hundred gigs of data
> for around a year now. It seems to work well so far. However...
>
> One problem with backups of stuff that is rapidly in flux (eg. email)
> is getting the stuff to be backed up to stay still while it is backed
> up. :-) Otherwise rdiff-backup may fail, or at best will not make a
> perfect backup.
>
> I've been using LVM's snapshot facility for this, but it is not
> perfect, since it seems to have problems with larger volumes with
> rapidly changing amounts of data.
>
> What are other people doing about this?
>
>                                                             Faheem.
>
>
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