Remote backup hosting setup?

[Chris Shenton]

Tim Aslat <tim at spyderweb.com.au> writes:

> Try one of the multitude of rsync based scripts, you can even get some
> very good incremental backups happening,

I have been thinking about this for my own use.  One problem with
basic rsync is that if (say) I trash a critical file and don't notice
it for a couple days, the (nightly) rsync will have overwritten the
good version with the trashed version. 

So I've been thinking of having maybe 5 different copies at the
destination and rsyncing to a different one each night so I have 5
different "backups" to go to -- just like in the days of
tape. Something conceptually like:

  rsync -avR --delete / remote:/BACKUP/`expr $dayofyear % 5`/

Yeah, you need to store 5x copies of your client's data, but disk is cheap.
It gives 'em 5 days to realize they've just hosed that critical file
and you can be a hero for restoring it. Income potential.

You might be able to achieve similar by rsyncing to a single
destination directory and using FreeBSD-5.x's "snapshot"
facility. Create a (read only) snapshot of the destination partition
every night. it only costs you the amount of diskspace consumed by
*changes* from the snapshot to the current data. Like a NetApp. Keep 5
snapshots around and get the same effect as the multiple rsync
destinations in my example above.  Haven't tried this but it seems
appealing.


Also, the original poster mentioned the source was windoze.  If you
google "rsync windows" you'll find help on installing ssh and rsync on
a Windoze box so maybe you don't need UNIX at your client's firm.

Check SAMBA for access to shares.  Amanda used to have some hooks to
backup 'doze shares to tapes, perhaps you could leverage their work.