real time backup server for microsoft windows, linux, bsd and mac os x clients
Companies
1) HIFX IT and Media Services PVT.LTD. ( http://www.hifx.net/ )
2) Virtual Training Company ( http://www.vtc.com/ )
3) IPLOTZ ( http://iplotz.com/ )
Contact Person for Details : Siju Oommen George [ sgeorge {dot) ml (at) gmail (dot} com ]
Scenario
These Companies have Developers ( working on projects hosted mainly on Linux ( Debian ) development Servers and shared using Samba shares) who need real time backups of their Project files and corresponding Databases. The developers should be able to access the backups using Microsoft Windows, Linuxes, BSDs or Mac OS X desktops/cliemts.
Till late the backup was implemented using backuppc ( http://backuppc.sourceforge.net/index.html ). The disadvantages of using backuppc were
If a file changed on the development server then backuppc would backup the whole file. So many small changes over a short period of time on a file will force backuppc to store multiple copies of the same file. As the number of such files increase and especially if the file sizes are high then one should compromise either on the no. backups that can be stored or on the backup interval. The backuppc backup interval was 2 hours.
The user interface of backuppc is not safe to be given for all developers because an accident can cause re write of the entire Project files with a previous backup. Also traversing through the hyper links and finding the backup file and downloading it through the browser to the local machine and then copying it to the development server i a tedious task to developers who are used to drag and drop of files for copying/moving.
Implementation Details.
A master pfs (www-hot ) was created inside a directory ( www-5mbak ) in the HAMMER file system [ Backup1 on /Backup1 (hammer, local) ].
The directory ( www-5mbak ) was shared using Samba as [WWW-5minsBak]
Project Files were rsynced from the Linux Development Server to the pfs 'www-hot' every 5 minutes using cron and a snapshot is taken to its parent directory 'www-5mbak' if the rsync completed successfully.
Sanpshoting is disabled in the pfs configuration and prune values are set to retain backups to the desired no. of days.
A Microsoft Windows User can access these snapshots as shown in the PIC below.
http://leaf.dragonflybsd.org/~sgeorge/PICs/Samba-hammer-snapshot-bkp-1.png
Drag and drop which ever backup of the file he/she needs.