[Samba] Re: nt->samba backup suggestions

[Jacob Anawalt]

Dale,

The RH-Linux 7.3 samba-client rpm installed a script file called smbtar in
/usr/bin. It wraps the smbclient command specificaly for running the
smbclient tar program. I don't know where it is installed on your system, if
at all. It is most likely in /usr/bin or /usr/local/bin if you've installed
the full samba package. You could use that script in your own scripts, or
just borrow from it to understand how to call smbclient in non-interactive
mode to tar a share. You could probably even use smbclient in interactive
mode with an expect script.

It supports exclude/include patterns (including regexp file name matching),
full and incremental backups, and changing to a starting directory, as well
as resetting or not resetting the windows archive flag on files so you could
do incremental or differential backups. It doesn't seem to support the
verify option or compression. It's documented to write directly to a tape
device, but I've only used it to write to a file on the linux box.

You could also just use GNU tar across a smbfs, but you may run into
problems with errors about the file being modified while reading the archive
when you know it wasn't. I tried that way at first, since I knew GNU tar
better, and it has a much larger range of options, including the ability to
give shell pattern matching for include files as well as an exclude shell
pattern, rather than just one or the other.

You may want to see these posts for more info:
bug: smbtar and incremental backups
smbclient returns incorrect file size for large files
File changed as we read it....
Re: SMBFS files receiving incorrect timestamps

If you are following the mailing list, but just joined you can find these at
news.gmane.org.

Jacob Anawalt

"Sykora, Dale" <Dale.Sykora at hp.com> wrote in message
news:E7BC9AA1C77D634D8255A878AB49B09D02330F94 at cceexc19.americas.cpqcorp.net.
..
Hello,
I am building a linux/samba server to backup some nt servers and would
appreciate some suggestions/pointers/criticisms etc...  I googled for "samba
backup" but could not find many similar solutions.
need...  Full/incremental network backups for 2=nt and 1=win2k servers.
Ability to choose which folders/files get included/excluded.  No software
costs.
motivation...  Full drive backups exceed 1 dds3 tape but some files do not
need backup.  NT backup makes include/exclude difficult.  win2k backup
difficult to script.  Will move from NT to linux/samba eventually.  Tape
drive failures cause main server downtime.
gameplan...  Build Linux-samba box with 3 dds3 drives and 4 100Mb nics.  Add
another nic to each nt/win2k server.  Build 3 crossover ethernet cables.
Configure nics with private ip addresses.  Mount nt shares with smbfs or use
smbclient.  Linux script backsup/compresses specific nt files to a local tar
file and then copy file to tape.

I had some problems connecting via the crossover cable, but did connect via
primary nics.  If anyone has attempted something similar, let me know.

Thanks,

Dale
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