Re: Wrong Hanoi backup scheme

Hi Hiran!

> What you say here is well known and the reason why SaraB comes with a GFS schedule by default.
> It is also documented in the FAQs. Shifting the cycle will only let you go for the first round and the problem actually persists.

Funny, actually I *did* read the FAQs, but it seems the fact didn't
penetrate my brain... :)

Still, although shifting the backup scheme will not save you from the
general problems of the Hanoi rotation scheme, it *will* save your very
first backup for as long as possible.  You will not have a complete
trail, but you are able to retrieve the state your system was in when
you started using sarab.  And as things always happen when you've got no
backup, I think the simple shift is worth the while.  But it's on you to
decide. ;)

> Have you considered using anacron to trigger backups instead of cron? It is designed to exactly do what you need here.

Yes, this was the first thing I thought of when I stumbled across sarab.
  The problem with anacron (to my best knowledge) is that it only runs
once and then updates the job's timestamp -- whereas I need the job to
run, say, hourly until both backup server and desktop computer are
online.  I've also had a look at fcron and other anacron-like
applications, but none of them seems to do what I need.  So I think I'll
work with cron and directories that include timestamps (such as
"full_2010-02-12_1839").

> In fact the generations in GFS and TOH look very similar, not to say they are the same.
> I doubt you can recreate SaraB faster than just configuring the correct rotation.schedule.

No, I was mostly joking.  For now, I only need a good implementation of
GFS, and that's mostly finished.  The only thing missing so far are
deletion of old incremental and differential backups.  Hanoi will come
later, or I'll use parts of sarab -- who knows. :)

All the best,

Martin
-- 
www.mzuther.de
www.radix-musik.de



------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Download Intel® Parallel Studio Eval
Try the new software tools for yourself. Speed compiling, find bugs
proactively, and fine-tune applications for parallel performance.
See why Intel Parallel Studio got high marks during beta.
http://p.sf.net/sfu/intel-sw-dev