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Using Linux for Windows HD Snapshots?

Posted by Cliff on from the drive-imaging-but-not-with-a-camera dept.

DBordello asks: "Our company is currently backing up weekly to tape. I would like to begin taking snapshots of our NT 4.0 server. My first thought was a Linux box running an Open Source solution. My research shows that most Open Source applications to take snapshots assume that the backup target is Linux based. This presents a problem with mounting the NT 4.0 server. While I could mount the share with Samba, all of the backup applications do not provide options to backup a local mount. What do you guys use to snapshot your Windows network?"

12 of 94 comments (clear)

  1. hdup my friend by ptaff · · Score: 5, Informative

    hdup should do the job. Simple, does monthly/weekly/daily and compression + encryption if you wish.

    Mount your NT filesystem via samba, specify your mounted directories to backup, put a crontab entry, that should be it.

    I use it daily to store a backup file on a the same host as the filesystem backuped - then fetching it using rsync with another machine for archival purposes.

    Won't keep NT permissions automatically, you should backup relevant permission files for Windows (anybody knows what they are?)

  2. NTFS support already in Linux by Bandito · · Score: 2, Informative

    Linux has a driver for NTFS already. Last time I looked, it was read-only, but that should suit you perfectly.

    1. Re:NTFS support already in Linux by mcgroarty · · Score: 4, Informative
      Reading NTFS by direct mount, you're going to lose ACLs, system/hidden attributes, encrypted files, and I don't know that Linux supports NT file compression either. Over the net, ACLs and NTFS file attributes are still going away.

      Really, it's best to use a Windows backup utility, or to use dd or similar to back up a binary image of the partition(s) on the machine itself.

      This is one of those places where it's better not to save a few bucks (unless you save those bucks by first migrating that server to a free OS).

    2. Re:NTFS support already in Linux by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      "I don't know that Linux supports NT file compression either."

      It does, and now you know.

  3. Amanda or SMBTAR by fdragon · · Score: 5, Informative

    I don't know how far you have researched this, but if you are running RedHat Linux 7.x, 8.0, or 9 you already have a solution with Amanda.

    Backup of Microsoft Windows machines happens via Samba shares of course, and it will run in agent or agentless mode.

    Agent mode of course gives you things like bandwidth throttling and compression of the network bandwidth usage. Agentless mode and you can back up anything you can mount.

    Typically you can have it use the smbtar(1) command (from Samba) to have it backup your windows machine.

    --
    The program isn't debugged until the last user is dead.
  4. One word: dd. by Mensa+Babe · · Score: 4, Informative

    With dd you can make a "snap shot" of any imaginable partition. No need to mount it. Just write dd if=/dev/hdc10 of=/root/backups/hdc10-`date -Is` or something similar, and it's done. I wish you good luck.

    --
    Karma: Positive (probably because of superiour intellect)
    1. Re:One word: dd. by shepd · · Score: 2, Informative

      Unfortunately, this is only useful if the replacement hard drive is identical to the original.

      This often isn't the case. :-/

      --
      If you could be told what you can see or read, then it follows that you could be told what to say or think - BoC
  5. No. by Mensa+Babe · · Score: 4, Informative

    Unfortunately, this is only useful if the replacement hard drive is identical to the original. This often isn't the case. :-/

    No. It just means that you have to make a partition of at least the same size on the new hard drive, as on the old one. The new hard drives are usually larger, so it's not a problem at all. First use dd to back up the partition and record it on a new hard drive using fdisk (or cfdisk if yu cannot use a simple CLItool) first to make a new partition of the same type and size, and then dd again to write the actual data. It's just that simple.

    --
    Karma: Positive (probably because of superiour intellect)
  6. Ghost 4 Unix? by CliffH · · Score: 4, Informative


    Not that I've used it extensively yet (maybe someone else has) but Ghost 4 Unix (g4u) will do a bit for bit copy just like Ghost for Windows does, difference being that it is freeware and backs up to any ftp server with the appropriate credentials added. I think I'll go ahead and try it a little more this weekend actually.


    Here is a link to g4u.


    Cliff



    --
    sigs are like a box of chocolates, they all suck remove the underscores to email me
  7. BackupPC by warmcat · · Score: 4, Informative

    BackupPC.

  8. Partimage by ggeens · · Score: 4, Informative

    Partimage makes an "intelligent" copy of a partition. I.e., it only copies the sectors that actually contain data. This gives a smaller backup than a full copy of the disk.

    It can read NTFS partitions, and it can connect to a remote server to store the file.

    They even provide bootable disk images, so you can use it without installing Linux on the NT machine.

    --
    WWTTD?
  9. Dacula? by egghat · · Score: 2, Informative

    Has anybody experiences with Bacula? An NT client is available, the server side is on **ix.

    Just found it today, so I can't give any comments, but at least their claim is cool:

    "It comes by night and sucks the vital essence from your computers." :-)

    Especially interesting would ba a comparison to Amanda.

    Bye egghat.

    --
    -- "As a human being I claim the right to be widely inconsistent", John Peel