Bowie Bailey <[email protected]> wrote on 03/30/2011 04:49:32 PM: > On 3/30/2011 4:11 PM, Jeffrey J. Kosowsky wrote: > > Timothy J Massey wrote at about 11:55:15 -0400 on Wednesday, March30, 2011: > > > Bowie Bailey <[email protected]> wrote on 03/30/2011 10:52:21 AM: > > > > > > > On 3/30/2011 10:16 AM, Scott wrote: > > > > > Full backups from one machine look like they are going to take > 12 > > > > > hours, so a night time full backup is not going to work - > for this one > > > > > machine I need it to happen starting Friday night so it has all > > > > > weekend to finish (poor connectivity). All the other machines can > > > > > stay on the normal default schedule. Is this possible/how? Thanks! > > > > > > > > Two possibilities here: > > > > > > > > 1) Start the backup manually the first Friday night. After this, the > > > > normal backup scheduling will continue starting the backup at > > > > approximately the same time each week. If it shifts too much, then run > > > > another manual backup to get it back on schedule. > > > > > > This actually works reasonably well. If the impact of running the fulls > > > on the wrong day occasionally isn't too great and you keep an eye once a > > > week, this works sufficiently. > > > > > > Also, don't forget that future fulls are shorter than the first full if > > > you use rsync/rsyncd. So if the first one is taking 12 hours, the > > > subsequent ones will take less. > > > > > > Finally, is a 12 hour backup really that bad for your > environment? Can it > > > run from 6 P.M. to 6 A.M., for example? > > > > > > In any case, if you absolutely have to make sure you run them > on a certain > > > day... > > > > > > > 2) Disable scheduled backups for this machine and run them from cron > > > > instead. For example: > > > > > > > > # Machine1 backups (3:15am) -- Full on Saturday, Inc other days > > > > 15 3 * * 6 /usr/local/BackupPC/bin/BackupPC_serverMesg backup machine1 > > > > machine1 backuppc 1 > > > > 15 3 * * 0-5 /usr/local/BackupPC/bin/BackupPC_serverMesg > backup machine1 > > > > machine1 backuppc 0 > > > > > > I do not recommend *disabling* scheduled backups. But modify > it: set the > > > full backup age to something like 7.97 days and use the cron entries > > > described above. That way, if something goes wrong with the cron jobs, > > > BackupPC will still initiate a backup. Yes, it will do this a day late, > > > but at least you're getting a backup--and maybe the slowdown > (or whatever > > > you're trying to avoid by running it on a certain day) will letyou know > > > that there's a problem! :) > > > > > > > Wouldn't a better/more robust solution be to define the blackout > > period for that machine to exclude everything except for the weekend > > -- or everything but Friday night if you just want a single Friday > > night backup. > > > > Just use a host-specific config file > > That is basically my first suggestion above.
Except that the blackout periods will prevent the *incrementals* from running, as I mentioned in another e-mail. > It all depends on exactly how much tolerance you have for variations in > the schedule. If you want no variation at all, then you use cron. If > you can deal with the backup time moving around a bit, then you set your > blackout periods and manually start the first full backup at the time > you want it. On that subject: I have found that, for backup servers handling multiple hosts, it is better to adjust the blackout periods to have a relatively narrow open window. I usually only give it two or three times to start, so a blackout period from, say, 3.5 to 1.5 or 4.5 to 1.5 (to allow it to start at 2 or 3; or 2, 3 or 4 respectively). That way, there is less opportunity for the backups to interfere with each other. The only times I do this rather than let BackupPC handle it by controlling the number of simultaneous jobs, size of the window, etc. is twofold: first, some servers are very large and somewhat underpowered and I only want to start early in the all-night window (otherwise they'll be running until noon and the users will complain); second, sometimes I have one or two important servers and a bunch of less important ones, and I want to make sure that those servers have specific windows allocated just for them. I'd still rather use BackupPC for scheduling than a cron entry: I can easily give it more than one opportunity to run, and if I do, say, a manual full backup at some other time it works that into the schedule without a hitch. Timothy J. Massey Out of the Box Solutions, Inc. Creative IT Solutions Made Simple! http://www.OutOfTheBoxSolutions.com [email protected] 22108 Harper Ave. St. Clair Shores, MI 48080 Office: (800)750-4OBS (4627) Cell: (586)945-8796
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