Judge my backup solution

[nowak2000]

Hi!

I need to back up about 15 computers in my company. These are rather
notebooks that employees take home after work; connected to a 100Mbit
Ethernet network.

Typical notebook data is:
* My Documents folder: hundreds of small, rarely changing files,
* the MS Outlook data file (1GB-5GB): a large file changing every
hour.

I've got to use a Linux server from IBM with about 80GB free space. The
server already a Samba share (so called "common disk").

I would like to have the backup data on the server build automatically
and periodically. History of the files would be very welcome to return
to the correct version after getting the backup updated.

My solutions are:
1.
* share all the files/folders on XP machines read-only,
* make the server download current version every few hours removing
the previous, maybe having calculated delta before (with xdelta) to
create a history.

Advantages:
* no new software on the XP machines.

Disadvantages:
needs transferring whole Outlook files.

2.
* install rsync on XP machines and sync to the server. Then maybe
calculate deltas.

Disadvantages:
no built in delta management.

3.
* install rdiff-backup with cygwin on windows machines
* have them synchronized with the server regularly

Disadvantages:
needs installing new software on each XP machine.

Advantages:
uses rsync-like transfer and builds incremental delta-organized
history of resources.

Problems:
I would need to transmit a copy of the large file, because it is
probably non-stop opened. So a windows Scheduled Task would have to
copy the file to be transferred.

=======

Can I ask you for comments or ideas (any thoughts are welcome)?

Best Regards,
Tomasz Nowak

 

[Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]]

In

Hi!

I need to back up about 15 computers in my company. These are rather
notebooks that employees take home after work; connected to a 100Mbit
Ethernet network.


Typical notebook data is:
* My Documents folder: hundreds of small, rarely changing files,
* the MS Outlook data file (1GB-5GB): a large file changing every
hour.

I've got to use a Linux server from IBM with about 80GB free space.
The server already a Samba share (so called "common disk").

I would like to have the backup data on the server build automatically
and periodically. History of the files would be very welcome to return
to the correct version after getting the backup updated.

My solutions are:
1.
* share all the files/folders on XP machines read-only,
* make the server download current version every few hours removing
the previous, maybe having calculated delta before (with xdelta) to
create a history.

Advantages:
* no new software on the XP machines.

Disadvantages:
needs transferring whole Outlook files.

2.
* install rsync on XP machines and sync to the server. Then maybe
calculate deltas.

Disadvantages:
no built in delta management.

3.
* install rdiff-backup with cygwin on windows machines
* have them synchronized with the server regularly

Disadvantages:
needs installing new software on each XP machine.

Advantages:
uses rsync-like transfer and builds incremental delta-organized
history of resources.

Problems:
I would need to transmit a copy of the large file, because it is
probably non-stop opened. So a windows Scheduled Task would have to
copy the file to be transferred.

=======

Can I ask you for comments or ideas (any thoughts are welcome)?

Best Regards,
Tomasz Nowak

Youch. This sounds like an admin nighmare to me. I don't like workgroups
outside of a small handful of home computers. Ideally, I'd recommend a
rather major network overhaul so you have a decent server to work with, and
use MS Small Business Server 2003 - AD, and Exchange, centralized account
management, folder redirection & offline files (altho' I use something else
for syncing). Outlook & Exchange means no more messy PST files.

Beyond that, I'd recommend looking at Second Copy at www.centered.com. This
will not work on open files, note. Neither will your scheduled task.