FreeBSD server(s) to backup multi-platform systems remotely

[Alan Gerber]

Dave McCammon wrote:

>--- Danny <nocmonkey at gmail.com> wrote:
>  
>
>>[snip]
>>

>>I haven't caught all of this thread but I'll share
>>what I do.
>>I use rsync to sync file to a server for backup.
>>6 FreeBSD and one Win2K which have been set up to
>>rsync at different times in the morning hours.
>>On the Win2k machine, I have cygwin running that I use
>>to rsync the data over every night. I think there is
>>rsync for windows but I liked the command line
>>capabilities that cygwin gives me.
>>All use ssh in the rsync.
>>
>>So after the night rsync's, I'll have a copy of files
>>on the backup server's harddrive and will also have a
>>copy on tape. Tape runs in morning after all servers
>>have sync'd. 
>>    
>>
I have a similar setup: a FreeBSD file and backup server with a 
dedicated hard drive that holds all of my backed up data.  I mount the 
hdd read-write at midnight each night, and I have scheduled tasks that 
run at 1am on 5 Windows boxes that rsync (over an SSH tunnel) specific 
directories that I want to keep backed up to the FreeBSD box.  I also 
have a local rsync job that runs on the FreeBSD box that backs up 
various locations in that system.  For the Windows boxes, I use the 
cwrsync package, which is really just rsync with cygwin.

I sort out the directory structure on the backup drive something like this:
/[boxname]/[weekly.[0-2]|daily.[0-6]]/[backup_dirs]

As you can tell from the directory structure, I run 7 days of 
incremental backups, and I also keep 3 weeks of full backups.  I have 
scripts that run at 12:15am to rotate the various directories around so 
that the incremental backups can work.

I compress the weekly backups via gzip to conserve hard disk space - I 
use the entirety of the 300gig drive.

At 6:30am, I remount the hdd as a read-only drive.  I push around about 
20 gigs per night when everything is all said and done, but because this 
all happens over a local 100mbps network, it isn't that bad.

I don't currently have any provision for providing easy, automated 
restore functionalities to the backups, and this is only onto a single 
hdd and not on tape or a raid array or anything, but it is "good enough" 
for my backup system at home. :-)

--
Alan Gerber