[Samba] Samba, rsync and a newbie sorting it out...

[Jon Niehof]

> I'd like to use rsync as a way to back up Windows devices on a network, 
> pulling data off of the Windows boxes and putting it onto a Samba share. 
> Is this even possible? I suspect I either need some sort of rsync 
> implementation on Windows (ha!) or I need to have Samba know to "reach 
> into" the boxes and get the info for rsync-ing. Doable? A fool's errand?
I'd recommend installing rsync 
(http://optics.ph.unimelb.edu.au/help/rsync/rsync_pc1.html) 
on the windows machines, installing PuTTY 
(http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/), 
creating ssh keys for the windows machines to log into the 
BSD box, and make a scheduled task on the windows machines 
that'll fire off and rsync to the BSD box. No samba involved.

The naive might consider sharing out the relevant 
directories on the Windows machine, mounting them on the BSD 
machine, and then rsyncing "locally." Unfortunately that 
involves pulling all of the files over the network and so 
rsync gains you nothing.

If you wish, you could install a full cygwin environment, 
including an ssh server, install rsync into that 
(http://optics.ph.unimelb.edu.au/help/rsync/), and have the 
BSD box do the "reaching out" via a cron job.