Planning file server, advice needed

[dark_hag666]

I'm planning myself a file server currently and I've put ubuntu onto my old pc to test setting up samba (the *nix/CLI nub that I am) and that went fine, well except I need to figure out how to mount a second hard drive then link the samba to that.

But what I need to know is how easy is it to set up a automatic file sync between two hard drives within the server. Instead of using a mirrored RAID array, I want to have my samba share with one drive then have that drive automatically back up to the second drive overnight. That way, even if the server dies, the hard drives will be completely readable in another PC (so long as they don't get fried as well.

I've head some things about Rsync but can't fine any info on if it will do what I want (automatic backups) or any newbie friendly set up guides.

Thanks

 

[BillytheImpaler]

Rsync is for remote backups. You could indeed use it. For this you can also use something as simple as a wee script that runs the dd comand, then schedule that to run once a day using cron.

 

[TrX]

even the cp -R (copy recursive) command would work fine here, and maybe a little safer than DD if something went seriously wrong on the first disk and you didn't notice until a backup had already taken place.

Another problem with the dd method is that using the drive during the backup would risk corrupting some of the block pointers on the drive.

However, it maybe worth looking into incremental rsync (even though it is meant to be used over a network) as it allows just the items that have changed since the last backup to be copied, saving a hell of a lot of copy time.

In all honesty, I would Raid1 (mirror them) using a mirror suite that would allow you to read one of them back in another system if it all broke (I think linux LVM is readable if you only have one side of a mirror left and it's in another system)

and any SERIOUS backups (Like really important doc's) should be kept offsite, or at the very least offline (detachable USB HDD/Pendrive)
//TrX