samba - Feb 2003 - Samba, rsync and a newbie sorting it out...

All, 

I'd like to use rsync as a way to back up Windows devices on a network, 
pulling data off of the Windows boxes and putting it onto a Samba share. Is 
this even possible? I suspect I either need some sort of rsync 
implementation on Windows (ha!) or I need to have Samba know to "reach
into"
the boxes and get the info for rsync-ing. Doable? A fool's errand? 


The setup: 

* In-home LAN consisting of 3-4 PCs running W2K and WXP; one FreeBSD server 
running SAMBA. 

* No PDC; everyone is on the same workgroup and everyone has equal and 
unfettered (no login/password and all can overwrite) access to /storage on 
the BSD box via Samba. 

Ideal situation: Designated directories on the windows boxes are rsync'd 2-3
times a day during times of low use. Alternate: The whole Windows drive is 
rsync'd onto a Samba share on the BSD box, once a day. 


Many, many thanks in advance!
QK

> I'd like to use rsync as a way to back up Windows devices on a network,
> pulling data off of the Windows boxes and putting it onto a Samba share. 
> Is this even possible? I suspect I either need some sort of rsync 
> implementation on Windows (ha!) or I need to have Samba know to "reach
> into" the boxes and get the info for rsync-ing. Doable? A fool's
errand?
I'd recommend installing rsync 
(http://optics.ph.unimelb.edu.au/help/rsync/rsync_pc1.html) 
on the windows machines, installing PuTTY 
(http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/), 
creating ssh keys for the windows machines to log into the 
BSD box, and make a scheduled task on the windows machines 
that'll fire off and rsync to the BSD box. No samba involved.

The naive might consider sharing out the relevant 
directories on the Windows machine, mounting them on the BSD 
machine, and then rsyncing "locally." Unfortunately that 
involves pulling all of the files over the network and so 
rsync gains you nothing.

If you wish, you could install a full cygwin environment, 
including an ssh server, install rsync into that 
(http://optics.ph.unimelb.edu.au/help/rsync/), and have the 
BSD box do the "reaching out" via a cron job.

If security is of no concern, i.e. workstation to Samba server backup in a
LAN, you might consider using tools like "xxcopy". See
http://www.xxcopy.com. If your users permanently map a Samba network share
to say "G:" the freeware version works just fine.

Example batch file for xxcopy:
-------------------------------
@echo off
xxcopy /ec E:\user\data1\ G:\temp\data1\ /clone /YY /ong:\backuplog.txt /PB
xxcopy /ce E:\user\data2\ G:\temp\data2\ /clone /YY /oag:\backuplog.txt /PB

xxcopy uses a lot (!) of command line parameters, which are fairly well
documented:
http://www.xxcopy.com/xxcopy01.htm

Good luck,
Uli