Re: Debian server for backups of Windows clients
On 08/02/2016 02:12 PM, Daniel Bareiro wrote:
> I'm thinking deploy a Debian backup server using Dirvish (which is based
> on rsync --- indeed, we have packaged it in Debian). On previous
> occasions I implemented these solutions seamlessly with GNU/Linux
> clients, but now I would like add Windows clients.
>
> The idea of using Dirvish is because I had a very good experience.
> Besides using rsync with hard links for backups of files that do not
> change from backup to the next allows a considerable saving of disk space.
>
> But to use Dirvish with Windows clients I will need to install an SSH
> server. I had thought that an alternative would be to use Cygwin, but
> was looking for documentation and I have not found any uniform process
> to install and configure a Cygwin SSH server on Windows.
>
> I would like to know if anyone has had any experience in this regard
> that could share.
Cygwin sshd and rsync are okay for interactive use. There is a shell
script (ssh-host-config) provided with the Cygwin openssh package for
setting up sshd as a service.
Unfortunately, Cygwin rsync is notorious for working for a while, and
then hanging in the middle of a transfer. I've seen this for years, and
I saw it on up-to-date installs less than a week ago. So for automated
backups, you need to detect this failure mode and deal with it. The
only way I found to get rsync working again was to reboot.
You might find more encouraging answers on the Cygwin mailing list:
https://cygwin.com/lists.html
Currently, Windows Backup and Restore is the most reliable solution I've
found for automated backups. Either it works, or it doesn't (the last
Windows Vista box I maintain has broken Volume Shadow Copy, which breaks
Backup and Restore).
David
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