Would that person (Sorry I have had to delete the mail to keep my mailbox size down), mind mailing the script, as it would be an invaluable thing to see. I could just copy and paste the user information, but the script would be good.
We use rsh: the remote machine needs the calling machine to be in its /root/.rhosts (or maybe in /etc/hosts.equiv). With this script the gzip is run locally. It needs a fast processor: it can instead be run before the pipe so it runs on the remote machine, depends on where you want your network/processor bandwidth consumed. The calling machine needs a large hard drive. The two scripts I use are cd /usr/local/etc/dumpscripts dev253# cat dump0.sh #!/bin/sh # file dump0 parameters are server id then partition # copies old level 0 dump then creates new one umask 066 if [ $2 = "/" ]; then fsname=root; else fsname=${2#/}; fi filename=/backup/${1}/${fsname}-0.gz filename2=/backup/${1}/${fsname}-0-bak.gz if [ -r ${filename2} ]; then rm ${filename2} ; fi if [ -r ${filename} ]; then mv ${filename} ${filename2} ; fi rsh ${1} /sbin/dump 0abfu 32 - $2 | gzip >${filename} and dev253# cat dumpw.sh #!/bin/sh # file dumpw parameters are server id then partition # dump level 1 every time in this version # won't do level 0 dumps umask 066 day=`date +\%u` if [ $2 = "/" ]; then fsname=root; else fsname=${2#/}; fi filename=`date +/backup/${1}/${fsname}-1-\%a.gz` rsh ${1} /sbin/dump 1abfu 32 - $2 | gzip >${filename} dev253# and some crontab entries are 15 0 * * 1 root /usr/local/etc/dumpscripts/dump0.sh serv254 u 2>&1 | sendmail cchd@felsted.essex.sch.uk 15 1 * * 2-7 root /usr/local/etc/dumpscripts/dumpw.sh serv254 u 2>&1 | sendmail cchd@felsted.essex.sch.uk this resulting in a directory containing drwxr-xr-x 4 root wheel 512 May 13 23:00 .. -rw------- 1 root wheel 7233205487 May 14 12:00 u-0-bak.gz -rw------- 1 root wheel 217554866 May 15 03:02 u-1-Tue.gz -rw------- 1 root wheel 232839231 May 16 03:03 u-1-Wed.gz -rw------- 1 root wheel 241696540 May 17 03:04 u-1-Thu.gz -rw------- 1 root wheel 245983202 May 18 03:04 u-1-Fri.gz -rw------- 1 root wheel 253113006 May 19 03:04 u-1-Sat.gz -rw------- 1 root wheel 247110325 May 20 03:05 u-1-Sun.gz drwxr-xr-x 2 root wheel 512 May 21 02:45 . -rw------- 1 root wheel 7245933740 May 21 09:09 u-0.gz dev253# and recovery is done with a command like # zcat u-0.gz | restore -if - If you are short of space you can instead dump level 1 on Monday, level 2 on Tuesday, level 3 on Wednesday etc. If you are very mathematical you can do a towers-of-hanoi rotation. If you have plenty of space you can keep more than a fortnight and if you are cautious you can back up the dumped files to tape (you will find they don't compress so a 20/40 HP DAT drive will only take 20GB of dumps). But with this system you can back up several systems concurrently. You just need to buy lots of big slow hard drives, put them on spare machines around the campus and devise a schedule. -- Christopher Dawkins, Felsted School, Dunmow, Essex CM6 3JG 01371-820527 or 07798 636725 cchd@felsted.essex.sch.uk