Hi all! I recently had a problem with a shared excel file which was rsynced from the file- to the backupserver. The backups of this file went wrong and I can't figure out why. The whole rsync and dump to tapes works like charm for a few month now. The situation was as followed. That xls lived (and was backuped) happily for 5 days. Then the users startet to share this file among 4 or 5 people. Means they made changes the whole day with several ppl. Everything ok on the fileserver so far. But not on the backup as I had to discover later on. This file was deleted (overwritten) accidently. Not a big surprise and no problem - normaly. I do an rsync script every minute thus the backup was identicaly. Rsync works ;) I fetched my tape backups. I have one for every day for this server. All of them had either the overwritten (ok, backup too new) or the version before they started to share. Now my question. Who is the suspect? Could it be that rsync just can't handle such files or that excel does some bullshit? I hope the later is to blame ;) Thanks in advance for help or hints! Regards, syncro -- View this message in context: http://www.nabble.com/Problem-with-shared-xls-file.-Could-it-be-blamed-on-rsync--tf3408546.html#a9495289 Sent from the Samba - rsync mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
syncro wrote:> Hi all! > > I recently had a problem with a shared excel file which was rsynced from the > file- to the backupserver. The backups of this file went wrong and I can't > figure out why. The whole rsync and dump to tapes works like charm for a few > month now. > The situation was as followed. That xls lived (and was backuped) happily for > 5 days. Then the users startet to share this file among 4 or 5 people. Means > they made changes the whole day with several ppl. Everything ok on the > fileserver so far. But not on the backup as I had to discover later on. This > file was deleted (overwritten) accidently. Not a big surprise and no problem > - normaly. I do an rsync script every minute thus the backup was identicaly. > Rsync works ;) I fetched my tape backups. I have one for every day for this > server. All of them had either the overwritten (ok, backup too new) or the > version before they started to share. > Now my question. Who is the suspect? Could it be that rsync just can't > handle such files or that excel does some bullshit? I hope the later is to > blame ;) > > Thanks in advance for help or hints! > Regards, > > syncroI've seen this happen before -- the XLS file was being written to at the time of the sync... Not much you can do about it. If you are using Windows 2003 as the file server you could use volume shadow copies and create a shadow copy of the partition which houses your data. This has resolved a couple of other issues for me as well as the XLS issue you describe. If you aren't, I'm not sure there is something similar in nix that can do this for you. I'm thinking that the file is locked and Rsync can't read it so it isn't sync'd. Just a wild guess. -- Thanks, James
Tony Abernethy
2007-Mar-15 17:01 UTC
Problem with shared xls file. Could it be blamed on rsync?
Microsoft tends to write its intentions into the directory and then eventually write the file contents to the file itself. Rsync depends on the directory contents not being premature. Shared files: (This assumes the Windows stuff is same as DOS.) The stuff for what portions of the file are locked for read or write is in a memory structure separate from the actual file contents. That stuff (locks in general) are a set of conventions which depend on everybody using the same conventions. dBASE used negative ranges so dBASE and the fox thingee would read each other's data but dishonor each other's locks I've taken to doing such rsyncs at 3:33 AM just to try to avoid such issues.> -----Original Message----- > From: rsync-bounces+tony=servacorp.com@lists.samba.org > [mailto:rsync-bounces+tony=servacorp.com@lists.samba.org]On Behalf Of > syncro > Sent: Thursday, March 15, 2007 8:13 AM > To: rsync@lists.samba.org > Subject: Problem with shared xls file. Could it be blamed on rsync? > > > > Hi all! > > I recently had a problem with a shared excel file which was > rsynced from the > file- to the backupserver. The backups of this file went wrong and I can't > figure out why. The whole rsync and dump to tapes works like > charm for a few > month now. > The situation was as followed. That xls lived (and was backuped) > happily for > 5 days. Then the users startet to share this file among 4 or 5 > people. Means > they made changes the whole day with several ppl. Everything ok on the > fileserver so far. But not on the backup as I had to discover > later on. This > file was deleted (overwritten) accidently. Not a big surprise and > no problem > - normaly. I do an rsync script every minute thus the backup was > identicaly. > Rsync works ;) I fetched my tape backups. I have one for every > day for this > server. All of them had either the overwritten (ok, backup too new) or the > version before they started to share. > Now my question. Who is the suspect? Could it be that rsync just can't > handle such files or that excel does some bullshit? I hope the later is to > blame ;) > > Thanks in advance for help or hints! > Regards, > > syncro > -- > View this message in context:http://www.nabble.com/Problem-with-shared-xls-file.-Could-it-be-blamed-on-rs ync--tf3408546.html#a9495289 Sent from the Samba - rsync mailing list archive at Nabble.com. -- To unsubscribe or change options: https://lists.samba.org/mailman/listinfo/rsync Before posting, read: http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html