I have installed Simple Linux Backup on Ubuntu 7.04 (32-bit) and tried using my login and as root to backup my home directory. I get the same problem with either user, or no specific user. Simple Linux Backup is not backing up all directories or files. The hidden directories, Documents and three other directory are being backed up, but I have a total of 41 directories in my home folder and a number of files.
I have checked the Backup.[Day].index manually and it lists 43677 lines (or files backed up), however when using Nautilus to check the properties of my home folder it states there are 157477 items. My home folder is 91.8 GB of which 40.7 GB are ISO images that I have downloaded and use frequently and 24.5 GB of captured video files. The end size of the Backup.[Day].tar.gz is always 13.4 GB. I am saving to an external hard drive formatted ext3.
Is this a limitation of Simple Linux Backup or am I having file size problems with ext3 and/or Ubuntu 7.04 32-bit?
TIA for your help,
Steve
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I'm sorry you're having problems. The first thing to do is to look at the log file, called bkup-<day>.log.gz. These are in the ~/.simplebackup directory by default (unless you changed this on the Advanced Options page). You can look at them using the "less" command. Hopefully that will show an error message near the end that pinpoints the problem.
There are a couple of possible problems that I can think of. First, and most likely, is that you're running out of temporary file space. Simple Linux Backup (SLB) first writes the backup file (the .tar.gz file) to a temporary directory, by default /tmp. If the partition on which /tmp resides does not have enough space for the file, SLB's tar command will quit, resulting in a smaller file.
You can try a couple of things: 1) Move the temporary file location to a larger partition, using the option on SLB's Advanced Options page; 2) back up less stuff; this is an awfully large backup, and SLB has never been tested (that I know of) with this scale of backup; 3) hack the backup script so that it writes directly to the backup drive without going through a temporary file first. I can help you with that last option; in fact, if it works, I'd consider incorporating it into the product.
The second possibility for the error is, as you suggest, that there is some system file size limitation. I don't know the answer to this one. I think it's much more likely that you're running out of temporary space.
Let me know how you'd like to proceed.
-- Steve
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Thanks for the prompt response. It is returning an "Error 141, No space left on device" so it looks like the /tmp directory is the problem. I'd like to look at hacking the backup script so it doesn't use a temp file, I think it would speed up the backup process, and of course I'll do the testing ;-).
Thanks, Steve
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I did try moving the temp directory but ran into the "out of space error" again. Two temp files (of the 90 GB backup), which weren't deleted, filled the 200 GB free space on my drive.
Thanks for taking the time to look at this issue.
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I have been looking at the bkup script and decided that I would not worry about 30 GB of ISOs in my home directory. I just edited the script to generate a listing of the directory content before anything was backed up. It seems to be having no problem with the size of the backups (63 GB gzipped file).
It may not be worth changing from a temp file location because the backup and index stay in the temp directory if the move to the final location fails, for whatever reason. This enables a manual move of these files to the final destination when the problem is fixed, keeping the backups viable.
A great little program that should definitely be in every installation.
Thanks,
Steve
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Hi,
I have installed Simple Linux Backup on Ubuntu 7.04 (32-bit) and tried using my login and as root to backup my home directory. I get the same problem with either user, or no specific user. Simple Linux Backup is not backing up all directories or files. The hidden directories, Documents and three other directory are being backed up, but I have a total of 41 directories in my home folder and a number of files.
I have checked the Backup.[Day].index manually and it lists 43677 lines (or files backed up), however when using Nautilus to check the properties of my home folder it states there are 157477 items. My home folder is 91.8 GB of which 40.7 GB are ISO images that I have downloaded and use frequently and 24.5 GB of captured video files. The end size of the Backup.[Day].tar.gz is always 13.4 GB. I am saving to an external hard drive formatted ext3.
Is this a limitation of Simple Linux Backup or am I having file size problems with ext3 and/or Ubuntu 7.04 32-bit?
TIA for your help,
Steve
Hi,
I'm sorry you're having problems. The first thing to do is to look at the log file, called bkup-<day>.log.gz. These are in the ~/.simplebackup directory by default (unless you changed this on the Advanced Options page). You can look at them using the "less" command. Hopefully that will show an error message near the end that pinpoints the problem.
There are a couple of possible problems that I can think of. First, and most likely, is that you're running out of temporary file space. Simple Linux Backup (SLB) first writes the backup file (the .tar.gz file) to a temporary directory, by default /tmp. If the partition on which /tmp resides does not have enough space for the file, SLB's tar command will quit, resulting in a smaller file.
You can try a couple of things: 1) Move the temporary file location to a larger partition, using the option on SLB's Advanced Options page; 2) back up less stuff; this is an awfully large backup, and SLB has never been tested (that I know of) with this scale of backup; 3) hack the backup script so that it writes directly to the backup drive without going through a temporary file first. I can help you with that last option; in fact, if it works, I'd consider incorporating it into the product.
The second possibility for the error is, as you suggest, that there is some system file size limitation. I don't know the answer to this one. I think it's much more likely that you're running out of temporary space.
Let me know how you'd like to proceed.
-- Steve
Hi Steve,
Thanks for the prompt response. It is returning an "Error 141, No space left on device" so it looks like the /tmp directory is the problem. I'd like to look at hacking the backup script so it doesn't use a temp file, I think it would speed up the backup process, and of course I'll do the testing ;-).
Thanks, Steve
Ok, I'll create a custom backup script for you. I assume you're running the latest, version 0.3.3?
Steve
Yes, I'm running 0.3.3.
I did try moving the temp directory but ran into the "out of space error" again. Two temp files (of the 90 GB backup), which weren't deleted, filled the 200 GB free space on my drive.
Thanks for taking the time to look at this issue.
I have been looking at the bkup script and decided that I would not worry about 30 GB of ISOs in my home directory. I just edited the script to generate a listing of the directory content before anything was backed up. It seems to be having no problem with the size of the backups (63 GB gzipped file).
It may not be worth changing from a temp file location because the backup and index stay in the temp directory if the move to the final location fails, for whatever reason. This enables a manual move of these files to the final destination when the problem is fixed, keeping the backups viable.
A great little program that should definitely be in every installation.
Thanks,
Steve