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Posted to users@subversion.apache.org by Tim Harvey <ti...@yahoo.com> on 2006/03/13 21:13:53 UTC
using subversion as a workstation backup mechanism
Greetings,
I'm working at a company where the backup of critical user files on their (primarily WindowsXP) workstations is greatly lacking.
I'm thinking of using subversion as a backup mechansim in the following way:
- we already have a network server (which is IT blessed) with a network share for each user mapped to say 'P:', and its contents are backed up nightly
- from each workstation, create a svn repository in P:\backup
- create directories in that repository and sync them to directories on the workstation to backup: ie: c:\documents and settings\$user\my documents\
- automate a script that runs nightly (via task scheduler) on the user workstation that does the following:
- svn add all new files
- svn del all missing files
- svn commit
Does anyone see any issues with this? I've used subversion for quite some time on source-code, but never against something as general as the contents of say 'My Documents' on a windows workstation. I've already written the dos batch file that performs the backups and creates the repository when run for the first time. I have the following questions:
- is there any downside to using file:// vs http:// in the situation I've described
- have other people implemented automated backup mechanisms using this concept
- what windows apps other than 'outlook' have people run into problems with using this mechanism? (Outlook locks its 'pst' files from being read while its running, therefore I would assume the nightly backup would need to kill outlook before it does its thing)
Thanks for any feedback,
Tim
Re: using subversion as a workstation backup mechanism
Posted by eg <eg...@gmail.com>.
Tim Harvey wrote:
> Greetings,
>
> I'm working at a company where the backup of critical user files on
> their (primarily WindowsXP) workstations is greatly lacking.
>
> I'm thinking of using subversion as a backup mechansim in the following way:
> - we already have a network server (which is IT blessed) with a
> network share for each user mapped to say 'P:', and its contents are
> backed up nightly
> - from each workstation, create a svn repository in P:\backup
> - create directories in that repository and sync them to directories
> on the workstation to backup: ie: c:\documents and settings\$user\my
> documents\
> - automate a script that runs nightly (via task scheduler) on the user
> workstation that does t he following:
> - svn add all new files
> - svn del all missing files
> - svn commit
>
In a Windows Server environment people often use redirection of My
Documents from the workstation to the server shares. It happens at login
and resynchronizes. Then server backups occur as usual.
Alternatively, there are server backup solutions (e.g. Backup Exec)
which will backup the servers and the workstations (from the server).
You don't mention your server OS, only your workstations.
This is not rocket science and shouldn't require some cobbled up
subversion solution.
Sounds like you need some IT help and some money thrown at it.
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Re: using subversion as a workstation backup mechanism
Posted by Tim Harvey <ti...@yahoo.com>.
> It sounds like you want something along the lines of
> http://fsvs.tigris.org/ but I don't think it's available for Windows.
Thanks for pointing this project out... I wasn't aware of it. It looks like that is pretty much what I've implemented for testing, however for a windows system.
> Why not use your desktop management software (for example Altiris) to
> perform automated nightly backups of the desktops? You can probably
> do incremental backups, which shouldn't hit your network too much
> harder than Subversion (and if it's overnight, no one will notice).
I'm no IT guy but all of the backup packages that I'm familiar with take their incrememntal snapshots by differencing data from a server over the network which could incur a lot of network overhead, where Subversion does this by differencing data from the 'pristine' revision in the working directory. Additionally Subversion is free and opensource (something I put a HIGH value on myself) versus bulky overly-complicated bloat-ware (not referencing any particular product by that statement).
>Or, just mount everyone's home directories on the network, disallow
>writing to the local hard drive, and just back up the server :)
We already do this, however many applications (esp Microsoft crud) don't behave well using datafiles mounted from a network share (remember this is a 'windows office' unfortunately, asside from us software guys who use Linux). I'm trying to come up with a mechanism that will work for the windows folks.
On 3/14/06, Tim Harvey <ti...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>
> I read the FAQ but I'm not sure I agree that its a 'bad idea'. It won't do
> what you would want to do 'efficiently' on a move or copy but its no worse
> than any backup solution I've seen.
>
> Our current backup solution is to run a script at login that does an 'xcopy'
> of C:\Backup with some options to limit it to new or changed files. The
> problem is that the network overhead is huge compared to using Subversion to
> do the same thing.
>
> Tim
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----
> From: Ryan Schmidt <su...@ryandesign.com>
> To: Tim Harvey <ti...@yahoo.com>
> Cc: users@subversion.tigris.org
> Sent: Tuesday, March 14, 2006 3:13:38 AM
> Subject: Re: using subversion as a workstation backup mechanism
>
>
> On Mar 13, 2006, at 22:13, Tim Harvey wrote:
>
> > - automate a script that runs nightly (via task scheduler) on the
> > user workstation that does the following:
> > - svn add all new files
> > - svn del all missing files
> > - svn commit
> >
> > Does anyone see any issues with this? [snip]
>
> That's a bad idea:
>
> http://subversion.tigris.org/faq.html#wc-change-detection
>
>
> > - have other people implemented automated backup mechanisms using
> > this concept
>
> I would recommend looking for software designed to back up
> workstations, and not try to make a revision control system do this.
>
>
>
>
Re: using subversion as a workstation backup mechanism
Posted by Andy Levy <an...@gmail.com>.
It sounds like you want something along the lines of
http://fsvs.tigris.org/ but I don't think it's available for Windows.
Why not use your desktop management software (for example Altiris) to
perform automated nightly backups of the desktops? You can probably
do incremental backups, which shouldn't hit your network too much
harder than Subversion (and if it's overnight, no one will notice).
Or, just mount everyone's home directories on the network, disallow
writing to the local hard drive, and just back up the server :)
On 3/14/06, Tim Harvey <ti...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>
> I read the FAQ but I'm not sure I agree that its a 'bad idea'. It won't do
> what you would want to do 'efficiently' on a move or copy but its no worse
> than any backup solution I've seen.
>
> Our current backup solution is to run a script at login that does an 'xcopy'
> of C:\Backup with some options to limit it to new or changed files. The
> problem is that the network overhead is huge compared to using Subversion to
> do the same thing.
>
> Tim
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----
> From: Ryan Schmidt <su...@ryandesign.com>
> To: Tim Harvey <ti...@yahoo.com>
> Cc: users@subversion.tigris.org
> Sent: Tuesday, March 14, 2006 3:13:38 AM
> Subject: Re: using subversion as a workstation backup mechanism
>
>
> On Mar 13, 2006, at 22:13, Tim Harvey wrote:
>
> > - automate a script that runs nightly (via task scheduler) on the
> > user workstation that does the following:
> > - svn add all new files
> > - svn del all missing files
> > - svn commit
> >
> > Does anyone see any issues with this? [snip]
>
> That's a bad idea:
>
> http://subversion.tigris.org/faq.html#wc-change-detection
>
>
> > - have other people implemented automated backup mechanisms using
> > this concept
>
> I would recommend looking for software designed to back up
> workstations, and not try to make a revision control system do this.
>
>
>
>
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Re: using subversion as a workstation backup mechanism
Posted by Tim Harvey <ti...@yahoo.com>.
I read the FAQ but I'm not sure I agree that its a 'bad idea'. It won't do what you would want to do 'efficiently' on a move or copy but its no worse than any backup solution I've seen.
Our current backup solution is to run a script at login that does an 'xcopy' of C:\Backup with some options to limit it to new or changed files. The problem is that the network overhead is huge compared to using Subversion to do the same thing.
Tim
----- Original Message ----
From: Ryan Schmidt <su...@ryandesign.com>
To: Tim Harvey <ti...@yahoo.com>
Cc: users@subversion.tigris.org
Sent: Tuesday, March 14, 2006 3:13:38 AM
Subject: Re: using subversion as a workstation backup mechanism
On Mar 13, 2006, at 22:13, Tim Harvey wrote:
> - automate a script that runs nightly (via task scheduler) on the
> user workstation that does the following:
> - svn add all new files
> - svn del all missing files
> - svn commit
>
> Does anyone see any issues with this? [snip]
That's a bad idea:
http://subversion.tigris.org/faq.html#wc-change-detection
> - have other people implemented automated backup mechanisms using
> this concept
I would recommend looking for software designed to back up
workstations, and not try to make a revision control system do this.
Re: using subversion as a workstation backup mechanism
Posted by Ryan Schmidt <su...@ryandesign.com>.
On Mar 13, 2006, at 22:13, Tim Harvey wrote:
> - automate a script that runs nightly (via task scheduler) on the
> user workstation that does the following:
> - svn add all new files
> - svn del all missing files
> - svn commit
>
> Does anyone see any issues with this? [snip]
That's a bad idea:
http://subversion.tigris.org/faq.html#wc-change-detection
> - have other people implemented automated backup mechanisms using
> this concept
I would recommend looking for software designed to back up
workstations, and not try to make a revision control system do this.
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