Backup/Copy/Mirroring Software

Epyon · 20 Aug 2012 at 21:53

Hello Everybody :-D

,

I've order a Pi, hoping to get it in a few weeks, I want to use it as my mover and shifter of data, so copying files from one location to another and ensuring they are mirrored. I want scheduling, etc.

So any ideas on a software that does this? Essentially it is a backup management software.

memyselfandi · 21 Aug 2012 at 05:48

Write a few scripts using rsync and then schedule them via cron?

Epyon · 21 Aug 2012 at 11:39

Sorry, I am quite new to this. What's rsync?

ltnmzh · 21 Aug 2012 at 11:42

Epyon said:
Sorry, I am quite new to this. What's rsync?

a copy software. check manpage or google it

rsync + checksum tools (eg md5sum or sha256sum etc etc) should do the job for you.

Epyon · 21 Aug 2012 at 17:20

Ah okay, if I installed one of the applciations that utilised rsync what would you suggest?

JonJ678 · 24 Aug 2012 at 13:08

In general, linux doesn't work like that. rsync will copy files from one place to another rather well. Cron does scheduling. There are various options for "mirroring" depending on what you actually mean by this. It's more "do one thing, and do it well" than "do everything, and hope for the best".

Is the plan to connect two usb hard drives to the device and then pull data from various computers onto both usb hard drives? If so the challenge will be persuading the various other computers to allow the pi access to their data. Using the pi to convert a usb hard drive to a nas seems reasonable.

You can make life significantly easier if you keep all your files on one computer, which is backed up. So, a central file server, which allows other computers access to the files stored on it. I've given up on trying to backup multiple computers using a central box, and now store all data on the single central box shared over the network. I've even got the better half saving documents she wants backed up to a specific folder, which is actually a network share from the central box.

Are you able to describe the network layout and what you actually want the device to do? Without more detail than "back things up" it's hard to help.

masterluke · 24 Aug 2012 at 15:51

+1 more info needed

If you are looking for speedy file transfers then the Pi is probably a bad choice. If speed isnt an issue eg. if you want a fairly small amount of data copied via the Pi overnight, then it could work ok. You could also make it an interesting learning\hobby device this way -which is what the Pi is all about anyway.

A NAS or perhaps a more powerful device designed for speedy file transfer would be a better choice for anything more serious.

Epyon · 22 Sep 2012 at 15:56

Apologies for the lack of information. This what basically what I need/want.

I have the Pi now and it is on my network, the purpose of the device is to be a file server, it will have an external USB drive connected which will sync every few hours my pictures, etc to it (personal data). This drive will not not accessible on the network.

Now the source of these files is my old laptop which has 2 external drives connected and acts as a download server. It stores the files and allows other users to connect with certain rights and do whatever.

Now what is need is for the Pi to do 2 things. One is to sync selected folders from one of the external drives on my laptop to the USB attached drive of the Pi. The other is to mirror 2 folders on the 2 external drives so that if one drive fails I still have a backup on the other however the drives remain separate.

Any ideas? If I'm over complicating this please say.

Also, anyone know how I can get a vnc gui on the PI like on Ubuntu, I can't seem to find a gui vnc server.