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Automate Backups on Network Using RSync |
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Written by hakimkt
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Wednesday, 26 January 2005 |
Use Rsync, a Linux program, to back up and sync data with Windows clients.it
uses the "rsync algorithm" which provides a very fast method for bringing remote
files into sync. It does this by sending just the differences in the files
across the link, without requiring that both sets of files are present at one of
the ends of the link beforehand. At first glance this may seem impossible
because the calculation of diffs between two files normally requires local
access to both files. sync is a small program that you can use to back up data
from computers on to a central network server. The good thing about Rsync is
that it syncs data for back up without affecting the network bandwidth. It
performs incremental backup, which means, if a backedup file already exists on
the central server, it copies only the difference between the two files, thereby
not affecting network traffic (on LANs or WANs). Rsync can sync data even over a
modem connection. It also creates a mirror of your hard drive on the central
server so that you can recover your data if your hard drive crashes.
RSync is a Linux program that has been ported to Windows and is also available
for various UNIX platforms. This article will guide you on setting up a central
network backup unit for use with Windows clients.
Set up
server
When we set up Rsync, we used a Linux box running PCQLinux 8.0.
You need to first create accounts for all the Windows and Linux users on your
network, who would be backing up their data on this server. Next, you need to
ensure that it has Samba running to provide file services to all the Windows
clients. It must also have a NetBIOS name, say Remote1. Finally, remember to
make sure that Samba is sharing the home directories of all the users you
created on this server.
Set up Windows clients
You’ll need to
apply the following process to all the Windows clients that would be using Rsync
on your network. It works on all the popular Windows versions (9x/ 2000/XP).
First, install Cygwin (on PCQ Essential CD, July 2003) on each Windows
client by running the setup.exe file. Next, copy the rsync.zip file from this
month’s CD to this machine’s local drive (say c:). Unzipping this file will
create a folder C:rsync. Make sure each Windows machine can access the Remote1
server.
Now, open a command window from the Windows machine and go the
C:rsync folder. Here, edit the rsetup.bat file. Find the entry
USERNAME=myusername and replace myusername with the user you created for this
Windows client on Remote1. Save the file and enter rsetup at the command prompt
to install Rsync . This will also set the required path variables for
Rsync.
Run RSync
To run Rsync from the Windows machine, open
the command window and go to the C:rsync folder. Then, run the following command
to take a backup or sync data:
C:rsync>rsync251-2.exe -e ssh -av
--delete -/cygdrive/c/ remote1:data
After running this command, you will be
prompted for a password. Give the password corresponding to the user name on
remote1. The above command will back up the entire C drive to the machine named
remote1 in the folder named data under the user’s home
directory.
Recover data
You can recover data from the server
by simply browsing it from the Windows Network Neighborhood and copying the
files back to your system. Or, you can use a command line to retrieve the data
as follows:
C:rsync>rsync251-2.exe -e ssh -a remote1:/data/
.
where, the final (.) is your local destination.
Automate back up
You can automate backup and sync processes by writing a sequence of commands
in a batch file and setting the Windows
Scheduler to execute this.
This program thus helps to sync data over the network without affecting
the network bandwidth.
HakimKT Kuwait
hakimkt@yahoo.com
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