Re: [Xen-users] Backup running Windows machines - redundancy

[Paul PISCUC <paul.piscuc@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi  Guido,

Thanks for the helpful insight. I think I'm doing to do a weekly dd/gzip image( or maybe twice a week), and daily incremental file backups. Still, this doesn't look like a clean method to backup. It's more like a workaround.

ZFS would be a solution, but like every solution, comes with good and bads. 

And one more thing ... what about saving the machine's state or pausing it, and then try to backup it?

On Thu, Feb 10, 2011 at 10:46 AM, Guido Hecken <guido.hecken@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Paul,

I did some tests on different tools like ntfsclone, partimage and dd through gzip.
In combination with LVM Snapshots they produce a backup which should preserve all meta data since these methods are not filebased.
One of the disadvantages are, these are not increment backup solutions, so you will have multiple big archive files.
Commercial tools like acronis backup&recovery or R1soft's cdp can do the backup job image-based and in an differential or incremental way.
So you will get smaller archives.
But these are commercial solutions and not really cheap.
BTW R1Soft has a great and free(!) tool called Linux Hot Copy.
With this tool you can create snapshots from regular, not LVM based filesystems.
It's a great enhancement for your daily backup stuff and it's free.

I think one should have at least two backup strategies, an image based for disaster recovery scenarios and one for the "oops I deleted file xy problem" as a filebased solution. Perhaps the filebased backup should run directly in the VM and use the OS specific tools, at least in Windows systems.

Guido


-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
Von: xen-users-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:xen-users-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] Im Auftrag von Paul Piscuc
Gesendet: Mittwoch, 9. Februar 2011 23:56
An: bart.coninckx@xxxxxxxxxx
Cc: xen-users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Betreff: Re: [Xen-users] Backup running Windows machines - redundancy

Hi,

Has anyone been able to backup a Windows machine using rdiff, or other
tool, that also preserves the meta data and allows restoring the VM?

On 02/09/2011 01:06 PM, bart.coninckx@xxxxxxxxxx wrote:
> When you backup to a Linux system I don't believe these will be preserved, there is no way to.
>  From Windows to Windows this might be OK though.
>
> B.
>
>
> ----- Originele e-mail  -----
> Van: "Paul Piscuc"<paul.piscuc@xxxxxxxxxx>
> Aan: xen-users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Verzonden: Woensdag 9 februari 2011 11:09:08 GMT +01:00 Amsterdam / Berlijn / Bern / Rome / Stockholm / Wenen
> Onderwerp: Re: [Xen-users] Backup running Windows machines - redundancy
>
> Hi,
>
> Regarding the backups made to the Windows fs using rdiff ... does rdiff
> preserve Windows ACLs and all those permissions?  What about hidden
> files, or files with different permissions between incremental backups?
>
> Sorry for replying so late.
>
> Paul
>


--
Best regards,
Paul PISCUC
System Administrator - Appnor MSP S.A.
US: (+1) 650 336 57 50
RO: (+4) 021 569 46 56
http://www.appnor.com

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-- 
Best regards,
Paul PISCUC
System Administrator - Appnor MSP S.A.
US: (+1) 650 336 57 50
RO: (+4) 021 569 46 56
http://www.appnor.com


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