"live backup" reccomendations

getting ready to do some network upgrading for a client. going to be putting in a linux box using the SME server for file / print sharing and DHCP.

they have a database and it has it's own custom server software. they backup the DB every night, and that will continue, but I want to use a smb share on the linux box as a quick and dirty emergency restore. I want to backup the db files every 30 minutes or so to the SMB share so that if the server goes down, they can get back much quicker and loose a lot less data. .. . . . ie simply plug in the spare server and follow the easy instructions to copy the db files back off the linux box and onto the server, fire up the application and all is well.

of course simple scripting comes to mind, but I don't know about file access violations with that.

I'm also thinking about installing 2k server on the machine and using DFS . . though this is getting a bit complicated (and expensive . . . which is why SME is doing the file / print sharing . . it's free) if there is a simple backup program that will do this. anyone have any good suggestions?

what about Replicator v2.2.3

Quote:

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Automatically backup files, directories, even entire drives! Karen's Replicator copies selected files from one drive/folder to another. Source and Destination folders can reside anywhere on your network. Files larger than 2 GB are supported.

Options include repeated copies at intervals as short as a few minutes, or as long as several months, copy only files that have changed, and the replication of file deletions.

New features allow you to specify which files should not be copied, and also which days a file should be skipped!

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edit: haven't tried it personally, but the site has a good reputation for the power tools.

I think it all depends on the type of database that it is. Some don't like you touching them when it's in use. I'd try testing it before you invest a lot of time and/or money into finding a solution that later will not work. Try just copying the db file (assuming that's what it is) to a share and see if it will copy sans errors. If it does then rsync comes to mind with a cronjob running on the sme machine.

Or better yet: after a little search I found this explaining how to run rsync from windows. Good luck

after some thought and looking at the system a little closer I realized that the custom server front end app asks which db to open and serve to the clients at startup so what I'm going to try is just put all the data on a linux box and map drives to the smb share that is on it, that way the data is completely seperate from the server app, and more importantly completely away from windows https://forums.windrivers.com/images.../2005/03/1.gif

swapping a "server" then is simply putting in a spare box that has that application on it.

my only concern is the speed if it's got to go through the network, but I think it'll be OK. we'll find out at least when I test it out.