On Tue, Dec 16, 2008 at 1:34 PM, MW <rs...@urmel.demon.co.uk> wrote: > Hi - I'm backing up a Windows client which has a number of Outlook mail > archives (pst files) and annoyingly whenever you open Outlook it updates the > modification dates of all pst files - even if you don't change any of the > emails contained in the archive. > What's the best way of backing up these files without having them fill up my > backup disk with mostly identical copies of these files. I guess I could use > the --checksum option or is there a better way? > BTW, I'm using rsync 3.0.4 on a Mac OS X (Leopard) machine and the Windows > client is running XPW
When Outlook opens a PST file read-write, its content actually does change, even if no email is received. Reasons: calendar reminder status changes, read status changes, search index updates, and a bunch of other stuff. A PST is essentially a big database file with a bunch of different internal tables and indexes. So these files are not actaully exact duplicates. If you don't want to store all the files, you can use --only-write-batch=FILE and its associated options to store only the "delta" of each successive file. Periodically, you will have to do a full update of the file though. This can be a brittle solution in my experience, especially if the chain 'o' files gets somehow munged. If your outlook client is connected to a Microsoft Exchange server, stop using PST files right now. Keep all your data on the Exchange server itself, which is the intended design. http://www.google.com/search?q=why+pst%3Dbad If your Outlook is connected to a POP server, and the PSTs are your only option, then you can use the rsync batch method. A better choice might be continuously updating the file using --inplace, and then using Time Machine (or whatever other snapshot solution) on the Mac side to keep different versions of the PST. We do this with large database files: rsync with "--inplace" and use VSS snapshots on the Windows server target. -- RPM -- Please use reply-all for most replies to avoid omitting the mailing list. To unsubscribe or change options: https://lists.samba.org/mailman/listinfo/rsync Before posting, read: http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html