Re: [BackupPC-users] replicating the pool from a NAS

[Michael K. <mic...@gm...>]

On 3/16/12, Arnold Krille <ar...@ar...> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> On 16.03.2012 12:05, Michael Kuss wrote:
>> surely this is the nth question on how to replicate a backup pool.
>> However, this time it's from an old 300GB Lacie ethernet disk mini.  I
>> tried:
>> 1) plain rsync with -H.  This worked last year, I remember it took a week
>> or so.  This year, either the LAN is worse, or the disk is aging, I get
>> regularly timeouts.
>> 2) rsyncing just cpool, and using tarPCCopy for the single backups.
>> Works,
>> but it is very slow, I'm now in the second week, with another week to go.
>> And, I had some timeouts also here.  So, I have to rerun some backups for
>> sure, and to be prudent I should very anything anyway.
>> 3) I tried to find a tool similar to dd which works on cifs mounted NAS
>> and
>> just copies the raw device.  I had no success.
>> Anybody has any advice on how I could speed this process?    In case it's
>> relevant, the disk is formatted xfs.
>> Another option is just forget about it, start with a fresh pool, and hope
>
> Two ideas:
>   - Take out the disk, plug it directly to your machine via sata. Then
> do the dd/rsync/whatever you want to do. 300GB locally copied don't take
> up that long.

Hi Arnold, thanks, good idea, didn't think of that.  Will give it a thought.

>   - Start a new backuppc-installation where you copy/recreate your setup
> with new bigger disks. Check that all works the same as the old install.
> Let them run in parallel for some days. Stop the backups on the old
> backuppc-install but do not delete it. You can still access the backups
> in case you need it. Remove the old installation only when the new
> installation starts to deprecate full backups.
>
> Although it works, I can't really recommend using a distant nas for
> /var/lib/backuppc. It doesn't give you any of the "off site" advantages,
> because its not really off site and its always connected. Unless you
> stop the backuppc-process. But then you don't get the automatic
> backup-scheduling.
> Better use an internal disk (mirrored with lvm, raid or drbd) and write
> daily, weekly or monthly archives to a nas. You can then either
> schedules these archives either by cron or by hand. You can even make
> cron check whether the nas is present. So that you or your co-workers
> regularly take the nas to home. Then its off-site... One further step
> would be two nas used every other interval.

Well, yes, that's what I do.  I have a second identical NAS, one is in
my office, the other in a lab.  I inherited them 3 years ago, they
were old already then.

Dankeschoen,

Michael