On Wed, Apr 08, 2009 at 10:55:29AM -0500, Les Mikesell wrote: > Thomas Karcher wrote: > > > >> I'm looking for something that can be fired up easily on a > >> windows/mac > >> without much concern for its physical hardware, so I don't think Xen > >> is > >> a good fit. I do have a dual-boot laptop - but it spends much of its > >> time in the same building as the data being backed up and I'd like a > >> plan that only needs the offsite disk and perhaps an image on a CD or > >> DVD that is likely to run anywhere. > > > > It doesn't matter which VM technology you choose - the network block > > device is the main idea. > > > > But perhaps I miss the point: You want to run a "desaster recovery" > > backuppc instance, right? > > I don't want to "maintain" a disaster recovery instance or require it to > exist in any particular place - I want to be able to spin up a virtual > machine on any available hardware that can access my spare disk copy via > a USB adapter and be restoring files in a few minutes. > > > You will have to do this in a *nix > > environment, since you need to read your backuppc repository filesystem > > with hard links. Whether you do that in a VM or on a physical machine > > doesn't matter I guess. So you have two tasks: Make such a desaster > > recovery system running, and get your last working backuppc repository > > to it. If you have a physical machine, it's a matter of connecting and > > mounting. > > I have a physical machine in the form of a dual-boot laptop, but it is > the one I use daily in the same building as the data being backed up, so > it's probably not a good idea to expect it to survive a disaster. > > > If you have a VM, all I'm saying is: I have good experience > > with nbd. And as far as I know, there is a NBD server for windows, but I > > didn't look much into it. This way, you could "export" your USB disk > > from a windows machine and "import" = mount it from any nbd-capable *nix > > machine on the same network. > > It might also work to re-spin one of the live linux CD distributions > that auto-detect most common hardware, but a VM sounds easier. Both > Virtualbox and the current vmware server/player claim to work with USB > 2.0 but I haven't done any speed tests yet - in fact I haven't been able > to get virtualbox to see usb drives at all. > I think USB only works in the closed source version of VirtualBox.
If you decide to got the live cd route, you might want to try Ubuntu. Version 8.10 comes with a nice and easy USB stick installer. Sidux has one, too. -Rob ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ This SF.net email is sponsored by: High Quality Requirements in a Collaborative Environment. Download a free trial of Rational Requirements Composer Now! http://p.sf.net/sfu/www-ibm-com _______________________________________________ BackupPC-users mailing list BackupPC-users@lists.sourceforge.net List: https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/backuppc-users Wiki: http://backuppc.wiki.sourceforge.net Project: http://backuppc.sourceforge.net/
