Wow, thanks so much to both of you! This is a HUGE help. I really appreciate your time.
Take care, Rich On 12/23/2013 03:36 AM, Corinna Vinschen wrote: > On Dec 22 21:55, Mikhail Usenko wrote: >> On Sun, 22 Dec 2013 00:02:10 +0000 >> Winkel, Richard J. <...> wrote: >> >>> I have a hard time believing this is an unusual question but I swear >>> I've been googling everywhere without an answer! :) >>> I'm using rsync (under cygwin) to backup windows servers to a linux box >>> and it's working wonderfully, except that if a file is open rsync can't >>> access it even for reading. I know some windows-based backup programs >>> don't have the problem so I'm hoping there's some way to avoid it in >>> cygwin. I've looked at the cygwin mount options but don't see anything >>> obvious. Is there a way around it? >> Hello, Richard >> You need to use VSS which stands for 'Volume Shadow copy Service' (or >> 'Volume Snapshot Service') on Windows. It is based on copy-on-write >> technology below the NTFS level and is used by Windows to make backups of >> the running system including of opened and locked files. (Also VSS utilizes >> a number of 'writers' that helps to make a consistent backup of opened >> database files for instance.) The shadow copy may be created by using >> different userspace tools: >> * vshadow.exe (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb530725(VS.85).aspx) >> * vssadmin.exe (on the server OSes) >> * wmic.exe >> * by calling COM WMI objects from windows script host >> (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/188135) - VBA or JS scripts or from Windows >> PowerShell scripts. >> >> The easiest way to access the created shadow snapshot: >> >> http://blogs.msdn.com/b/adioltean/archive/2008/02/28/a-simple-way-to-access-shadow-copies-in-vista.aspx > You can access the shadow copies in Cygwin via /proc/sys: > > $ cd /proc/sys/Device > $ ls -l HarddiskVolumeShadowCopy* > lr--r--r-- 1 Administrators SYSTEM 0 Dec 23 10:32 > HarddiskVolumeShadowCopy{0f7ef985-69b8-11e3-8264-ccdf67e6642d} -> > /proc/sys/Device/HarddiskVolumeShadowCopy2 > brwxrwx--x 1 Administrators SYSTEM 0, 250 Dec 23 10:32 > HarddiskVolumeShadowCopy2 > $ cd HarddiskVolumeShadowCopy2/ > > Note the trailing slash in the last cd command! It's required due to > the dualism of the HarddiskVolumeShadowCopy2 entry, being a device *and* > the root dir of a drive. ANyway, after this, you can access the shadow > copy just like your normal drive: > > $ ls > $Recycle.Bin hiberfil.sys swapfile.sys > bootmgr pagefile.sys Symbols > BOOTNXT PerfLogs System Volume Information > Config.Msi Program Files Users > cygwin Program Files (x86) Windows > cygwin64 ProgramData > Documents and Settings > >> Then rsync can be used to copy files from the shadow snapshot after which >> the snapshot can be deleted. > Right. > > > Corinna >
