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This is probably one of those topics that gets regurgitated periodically, but it's always good to get some fresh answers.
The small consultancy business I work for wants to set up a new file server with remote backup. In the past we have used a Windows XP file server and plugged in a couple of external USB drives when space runs out. Backups were performed nightly to a USB drive and taken offsite to a trusted employees home.
They are looking to Linux for a new file server (I think more because they found out how much a new Windows file server would be).
I'm not a server guy but I have set up a simple Debian-based web server at work for a specific intranet application, but when I was asked about ideas for the new system the best I could come up with was maybe ssh+rsync (which I have only recently started using myself so I'm no expert by any means). Using Amazon's cloud service has been suggested, as well as the remote being a dedicated machine at a trusted employee's home (probably with a new dedicated line in) or with our local ISP (if they can offer such a service). A new dedicated line out of the office has also been suggested, I think mainly because daily file changes can potentially be quite large (3D CAD models etc). A possible advantage of the remote being nearby is that the initial backup could be using a portable hard drive instead of having to uploading terabytes of data (I guess there is always courier services though).
Anyway, just thought I'd chuck it out there. A lot of you guys probably already set up and/or look after remote backup systems. Even if anyone just has some ideas regarding potential traps/pitfalls would be handy. The company is fairly small (about 20-odd employees) so I don't think they need anything overly elaborate, but all feedback is appreciated.
(Score: 1) by goodie on Friday July 11 2014, @12:46PM
I've used rsync in the past, but it's not really a backup system as others have pointed out. I just liked the fact that it worked well and it was already installed on my FreeBSD machines. But then again, that's a home setup, not an SME's critical data. I just wanted to point out that the issue with rsync is integration with win clients if that's ever a possibility. I use it to clone pics, documents and my personal git repository
If your setup sticks to a master file server and a backup file server both running some flavor of Linux or BSD, then rsync is good, but again it's not a backup system in the way we understand it. For example, I'm not sure you could decide to restore to t-1 after a disaster. Say Guy puts file on server. That gets rsync'ed. Then guy deletes file. That gets rsync'ed. If you want that file back, it may not be doable depending on your rsync settings (no delete). However, with incremental backups you may be able to restore to the snapshot before the file was deleted.
It all depends on what you need to be able to do exactly and whether you want to be able to easily administer all this using a web browser etc. for example. Do you guys have competent people to run that sort of thing on non-Windows machines in your company? That's an important point to keep in mind, It's one thing to set up the beast, another one to tame it, try it etc.
(Score: 2) by egcagrac0 on Friday July 11 2014, @03:43PM
Rsync has some useful stuff built in for incrementals, and file-level deduplication. [interlinked.org] A very small wrapper script and an underlying filesystem that supports hardlinks is pretty much all you need to get there.
(Score: 1) by goodie on Friday July 11 2014, @04:58PM
Cool, I did not know about that, thanks!
(Score: 2) by egcagrac0 on Friday July 11 2014, @08:53PM
An obvious enhancement would be to check if nothing has changed. If all the batch run produced was a new directory tree full of hardlinks and symlinks, there is no value in keeping it (but there is a cost in keeping it).
I'm not sure of a good way to implement that enhancement.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 12 2014, @11:57AM
"... the issue with rsync is integration with win clients". cf. cygwin.