Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Remote Backup of Windows Boxes w/o Samba?

Posted by Cliff on from the data-dumps-over-a-secure-tunnel dept.

reezle asks: "I'm looking for a good (free as in beer) method to have my Debian server back up some remote Windows machines. There is no Samba in the mix; this is supposed to be a strictly secure internet thing. I've been toying with OpenSSH on the windows computers as a good tunnel, thought of simple tools like ntbackup initiated from a script on the Linux box, but not all of the pieces have come together yet. I need to have the Linux box make the connection, back up data (full and incremental backups) and have that backup data get back to the Linux machine in an encrypted format (across the wild internet). Has anyone done something like this?"

5 of 100 comments (clear)

  1. Idea, by MoOsEb0y · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Install an SSH Server on the windows machine, use SHFS to mount the remote filesystem to a directory, then use rsync to copy it.

    1. Re:Idea, by nocomment · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I do this on my linux boxes and it works really well. A quick google talks about people doing this between *nix and windows.

      --
      /* oops I accidentally made a comment, sorry */
      /* http://allyourbasearebelongto.us */
  2. Three letters: SCP. by GregChant · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Your best bet, in a cheap and dirty solution, is to use SCP. Set up a cron job to securely copy the files you need. No muss, no fuss, no samba, and all encrypted.

  3. Backup by m0rph3us0 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Use the windows backup program to have windows make the backups then have Windows copy them to the debian box via scp.

    Or.... put Samba on the Debian box, use port forwarding and the loopback adapter to create a tunnel to the samba box and have the windows backup program write to the samba share which is only listens on 127.0.1.1

    setup on windows box:
    Loopback IP: 172.168.254.1
    Real IP: XX.XX.XX.XX
    SSH port forward from Local 172.168.254.1:139 to remote 127.0.0.1:139

    Create an account for each machine on the debian box.

    Windows backs up to \\172.168.254.1\MACHINENAME

  4. Might give Unison a Try by namtro · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I've had fairly good experiences with the Unison product. It works similarly to rsync but with a few enhanced features. And I quote...

    • Unison runs on both Windows (95, 98, NT, and 2k) and Unix (Solaris, Linux, etc.) systems. Moreover, Unison works across platforms, allowing you to synchronize a Windows laptop with a Unix server, for example.
    • Unlike a distributed filesystem, Unison is a user-level program: there is no need to hack (or own!) the kernel, or to have superuser privileges on either host.
    • Unlike simple mirroring or backup utilities, Unison can deal with updates to both replicas of a distributed directory structure. Updates that do not conflict are propagated automatically. Conflicting updates are detected and displayed.
    • Unison works between any pair of machines connected to the internet, communicating over either a direct socket link or tunneling over an rsh or an encrypted ssh connection. It is careful with network bandwidth, and runs well over slow links such as PPP connections. Transfers of small updates to large files are optimized using a compression protocol similar to rsync.
    • Unison has a clear and precise specification.
    • Unison is resilient to failure. It is careful to leave the replicas and its own private structures in a sensible state at all times, even in case of abnormal termination or communication failures.
    • Unison is free; full source code is available under the GNU Public License.

    Anyway, you might give it a look...