Performing a test 'restore' is a VERY important part of doing a backup. You would be surprised how many times large IT organizations have discovered that all of their backups did nothing more than fill up media with unusable bits.
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I agree there needs to be a log of some sort. I'm using a laptop so I could easily hibernate or shutdown in the middle of a backup without knowing it. The only way I know if a backup happened is if there is a new directory in my backup folder. But the only way to know if it's complete is to extract the files and compare them against the originals.
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I installed sbackup this morning, set it to backup hourly (so I can see that it's working), gave it the address of my external hard drive and clicked the test button, and clicked on the Backup Now button.
After I clicked the test button, the destination directory I specified (which didn't already exist) was created by sbackup. That suggests to me that permissions are okay.
I haven't seen any files in that backup directory, so I know it's not working, for some reason.
That's not so much a problem, except that I don't know WHY it isn't working, so that I can fix the problem.
Does anyone know where sbackup logs its activity?
Regards, Mal.
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I am trying to diagnose and fix a problem where sbackup does not write to the backup directory on an external drive.
I am puzzled that I have been able to copy files to the external drive using the stock standard Ubuntu Places file utility - which I'm presuming means there aren't any permissions problems.
And when I set up sbackup to back up to the same external drive, it created the backup directory I specified, and tested okay that it could write to it.
But when I asked sbackup to back up now, it didn't. It started its background process, but quickly died.
I'm a bit of an idiot-savant when it comes to system administration - more idiot than savant. I've scripted rsync, but I haven't a clue how to mount the above-mentioned external hard drive so I can cd to it and check (and change) its permissions.
Does sbackup write to a log file somewhere that I can check?
I've had a gander in /var/log but all I see there is the package manager as it was installing sbackup:
mal@mal-laptop:/var/log$ egrep sbackup *.log
dpkg.log:2010-06-18 08:14:52 install sbackup <none> 0.10.5ubuntu2
dpkg.log:2010-06-18 08:14:52 status half-installed sbackup 0.10.5ubuntu2
dpkg.log:2010-06-18 08:14:53 status half-installed sbackup 0.10.5ubuntu2
dpkg.log:2010-06-18 08:14:53 status half-installed sbackup 0.10.5ubuntu2
dpkg.log:2010-06-18 08:14:53 status half-installed sbackup 0.10.5ubuntu2
dpkg.log:2010-06-18 08:14:55 status unpacked sbackup 0.10.5ubuntu2
dpkg.log:2010-06-18 08:14:55 status unpacked sbackup 0.10.5ubuntu2
dpkg.log:2010-06-18 08:15:13 configure sbackup 0.10.5ubuntu2 0.10.5ubuntu2
dpkg.log:2010-06-18 08:15:13 status unpacked sbackup 0.10.5ubuntu2
dpkg.log:2010-06-18 08:15:13 status half-configured sbackup 0.10.5ubuntu2
dpkg.log:2010-06-18 08:15:14 status installed sbackup 0.10.5ubuntu2
In a nutshell, because sbackup was able to create the directory I specified, I expect the problem is not one of permissions. But a lot file output would help me confirm that one way or the other. Is there a log I can look at?
Regards, Mal.
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About a log file for this application, I did not see anything in the code for now. Also, according to comment 5 and 6, you are not the first person that looking for log file.
Jocelyn
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Hi - where are messages related to the backup logged?
How can you tell the status of a backup - if it succeeded? What files were backed up?
I'd like to know the answer to this - is there any way, apart from checking the backup disk to see if the file is there?
You can use the Simple Backup Restore program. Mine's under System->Administration on Ubuntu Hardy.
Performing a test 'restore' is a VERY important part of doing a backup. You would be surprised how many times large IT organizations have discovered that all of their backups did nothing more than fill up media with unusable bits.
What if you know it failed!!! Is there a log somewhere to tell you what happened??
I agree there needs to be a log of some sort. I'm using a laptop so I could easily hibernate or shutdown in the middle of a backup without knowing it. The only way I know if a backup happened is if there is a new directory in my backup folder. But the only way to know if it's complete is to extract the files and compare them against the originals.
I installed sbackup this morning, set it to backup hourly (so I can see that it's working), gave it the address of my external hard drive and clicked the test button, and clicked on the Backup Now button.
After I clicked the test button, the destination directory I specified (which didn't already exist) was created by sbackup. That suggests to me that permissions are okay.
I haven't seen any files in that backup directory, so I know it's not working, for some reason.
That's not so much a problem, except that I don't know WHY it isn't working, so that I can fix the problem.
Does anyone know where sbackup logs its activity?
Regards, Mal.
Hello Mal
See the following bug and his solution in the section Trackers / Bugs ;)
sbackup not writing to disk since Ubuntu 10.04 - ID: 2996590
Jocelyn
Backup files not generated. Where are sbackup logs?
I am trying to diagnose and fix a problem where sbackup does not write to the backup directory on an external drive.
I am puzzled that I have been able to copy files to the external drive using the stock standard Ubuntu Places file utility - which I'm presuming means there aren't any permissions problems.
And when I set up sbackup to back up to the same external drive, it created the backup directory I specified, and tested okay that it could write to it.
But when I asked sbackup to back up now, it didn't. It started its background process, but quickly died.
I'm a bit of an idiot-savant when it comes to system administration - more idiot than savant. I've scripted rsync, but I haven't a clue how to mount the above-mentioned external hard drive so I can cd to it and check (and change) its permissions.
Does sbackup write to a log file somewhere that I can check?
I've had a gander in /var/log but all I see there is the package manager as it was installing sbackup:
mal@mal-laptop:/var/log$ egrep sbackup *.log
dpkg.log:2010-06-18 08:14:52 install sbackup <none> 0.10.5ubuntu2
dpkg.log:2010-06-18 08:14:52 status half-installed sbackup 0.10.5ubuntu2
dpkg.log:2010-06-18 08:14:53 status half-installed sbackup 0.10.5ubuntu2
dpkg.log:2010-06-18 08:14:53 status half-installed sbackup 0.10.5ubuntu2
dpkg.log:2010-06-18 08:14:53 status half-installed sbackup 0.10.5ubuntu2
dpkg.log:2010-06-18 08:14:55 status unpacked sbackup 0.10.5ubuntu2
dpkg.log:2010-06-18 08:14:55 status unpacked sbackup 0.10.5ubuntu2
dpkg.log:2010-06-18 08:15:13 configure sbackup 0.10.5ubuntu2 0.10.5ubuntu2
dpkg.log:2010-06-18 08:15:13 status unpacked sbackup 0.10.5ubuntu2
dpkg.log:2010-06-18 08:15:13 status half-configured sbackup 0.10.5ubuntu2
dpkg.log:2010-06-18 08:15:14 status installed sbackup 0.10.5ubuntu2
In a nutshell, because sbackup was able to create the directory I specified, I expect the problem is not one of permissions. But a lot file output would help me confirm that one way or the other. Is there a log I can look at?
Regards, Mal.
Hello Mal,
I just start to look the code of this project last week because I was not able to do a backup. You seem to have the same problem as I have.
Take a look at this thread: http://sourceforge.net/projects/sbackup/forums/forum/486192/topic/1722739
The file you need to modify is located under this directory: /usr/share/sbackup
I hope this information will help you.
About a log file for this application, I did not see anything in the code for now. Also, according to comment 5 and 6, you are not the first person that looking for log file.
Jocelyn