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Originally Posted by
c.wakeman
Thanks again for your help so far Corona688.
An update so far:
I used the uname command, we're running Linux.
The decision was made to purchase a cheaper 1 TB external hard drive as a stop-gap measure to make sure the data is backed up before moving ahead with setting up an automatic backup to a dedicated raid 1 array. We purchased a Buffalo Linkstation Live LS-CHL.
The drive can be formatted to to FAT, NTFS, XFS, and HFS+.
All right so far.
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The server I want to backup is an NTFS file system.
??? I thought you were running Linux!
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I believe the drive comes XFS standard. Should I format the drive to NTFS for compatibility? or is that a non-issue.
If you intended to plug the hard drive into anything directly, Windows wouldn't understand XFS. But that should be a non-issue for network storage.
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The user manual for the drive states the disadvantages of NTFS as:
1) Read-only from the LinkStation or a Mac.
2) Not suitable for backup from the LinkStation.
I'm not sure why it says this.
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The relevant disadvantage of XFS is:
You cannot read data by directly connecting to a PC.
True for Windows, but XFS isn't completely alien -- we use it here at work for our Linux file server. Linux can, if it's configured to do so.
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Once that is determined, what are the steps I need to take to make a backup .tar of the server files based upon the code you provided earlier?
I don't have a Buffalo Linkstation Live LS-CHL so I can't tell you how you'd be able to connect to it, but once you do, you open a DOS prompt, change to the drive you attached your NAS as, and run the command. You'll need to put udpcast on the same drive or in your PATH. You can download a windows version of udp-receiver from
UDP Cast
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Does the Unix command simply go in the command line with root access?
Well, you need to install udpcast first of course. And you can run it under any user with sufficient access privileges to get at all the files in question.
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I assume I change the /path/to/files/i/want/to/backup to the path relevant to my server?
Yes.
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What if I simply want to copy all the files on the drive?
All the files on
which drive? Linux doesn't have a c: or d: like Windows, all your partitions are accessed through the same file tree. Some folders chosen by /etc/fstab become partitions -- files inside them reside on that partition.
You can't just do a blind copy of
everything while the server's running. There's things that shouldn't be copied while in use, and lots of things it wouldn't make sense to bother copying anyway.
If you really want to do a true, blind copy of the server that you could copy back into a new drive and boot without it knowing the difference, you shouldn't do so while the server's operating, you should boot from a livecd and do so with minimal effect on the system itself. But if you don't actually know how to use Linux yet, your options are very limited.
So, what's your server actually doing? If you don't know, could you find out?
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Do I designate the name of the backup file to be sent before the udp-sender or is built in to be named when received?
Windows creates the file, Windows decides the name.
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On the Windows end, where is that command entered? The command prompt?
Yes.
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Can I name the file to be anything I like (probably something along the lines of backupmmddyy.tar or are there restrictions?
You can name it anything you want.
---------- Post updated at 03:21 PM ---------- Previous update was at 03:17 PM ----------
It may be simpler, and faster to plug the drive into the server direct, mount it, and create the tarball on it that way. Assuming your Linux server can understand XFS.