Re: [Burp-users] split_vss=1 drawbacks

[Graham K. <gr...@gr...>]

On Mon, Mar 02, 2015 at 08:41:38PM +0100, Branko Tanovich wrote:
> Hi ,
> 
> Thank you very much for writing amazing and very good and easy to use 
> program.

Hello,
Thanks for your kind words.

> I would like to ask a couple question if possible to answer.
> 
> 1. First what are the drawbacks using split-vss=1 we use stable burp 
> 1.3.48 on linux server ?

* Backups/restores/verifies will take longer, as the vss data is stored
  separately to the file data. The phase1 scan sends more data (an extra
  piece for each piece of vss data). An extra inode for each piece of vss data
  is used on the server, so there are more files to open and close, and more
  entries to go through in the shuffling phase.

* My perception is that the split_vss/strip_vss options are not used by many
  people, so any bugs in it are less likely to be already discovered.

>      Restoring problems ... etc what can't be restored ?

No data is lost with split_vss, so everything that can be restored without
split_vss can be restored with it (assuming no bugs).

> 2. When doing windows backups what are most common issues for example 
> running MS Exhange and SQL server
>      what are the recommendation for excluding directory's/files ?

I have no recommendations for excluding anything, other than what you get in
the default Windows client install.

> Any know problems ?

You should be OK to restore the entire mail system.
If you plan on doing something like restoring individual mailboxes or mails,
you will have problems because burp doesn't work at that granularity. As I
understand it, Exchange stores its data in large chunks.

I know nothing about SQL server, but the same idea applies.

If your Exchange or SQL systems contain files many gigabytes in size, then
you may have problems because librsync isn't good at dealing with huge files
that change (it is very slow). You may turn off librsync, but then you will
be backing up the whole huge file every time.
The original intention of burp-2 was to do better with these sorts of
situations, but it is not ready yet.

> Is it possible to recover hole server ?

It is possible to restore the whole server.
But it is your responsibility to test this.

> 3.  How to restore single folder from backup using client on windows 
> into temp dir ?  Could not find this sorry :(
>       For example restore C:/Users/Branko -> C:/tmp/

Do something like this (I am using backup number 2 in this example):
burp.exe -a L -b 2 -r C:/Users/Branko

That will list (-a L) the files in backup 2 (-b 2) that match the regular
expression (-r C:/Users/Branko).

If it looks like it is listing the right thing, change the '-a L' to '-a r',
and add the directory to restore to (-d C:/tmp):

burp.exe -a r -b 2 -r C:/Users/Branko -d C:/tmp

> Thank you so much,
> Branko.