Hello, I ran into an interesting problem earlier today. I have a Unix machine I maintain in a largely Windows shop. They use Windows Backup for their backups, and so I created a readonly share of the entire filesystem with one user, "backup", who is an admin user. This lets them back up the entire Unix machine by attaching to the "backup" share, but nothing can be changed. So far so good. I'm backing up just essential files on the system, "/etc", "/home", and "/usr/local". We started running the backup, and it first estimated 3GB, which is about right. As it ran, though, it kept increasing its estimate; we stopped it at about 20GB. Closer inspection showed that it was confused by circular links to directories. The default Apache configuration on our system has a circular link, with "/etc/apache/conf" -> "/etc/apache". I believe this is for compatibility, since Apache configuration files used to be in "/etc/apache/conf", but that's beside the point. This is installed by the OS, so I'm reluctant to remove it, since other packages could depend on it being present. The problem was that circular link. Samba would resolve the symlink for the client, and so the client would recurse into a directory it was already in, and so just keep backing up forever. I looked at disabling symlinks, but the docs said this will return errors when they are read. I suspect this would upset the backup software. Does anybody have a suggestion for dealing with this? Thanks, ---Scott.
Scott Gifford wrote:> Hello, > > ... > Does anybody have a suggestion for dealing with this? > > Thanks, > > ---Scott. >dont descend = /etc/apache/conf *Michael Heydon - IT Administrator * michaelh@jaswin.com.au <mailto:michaelh@jaswin.com.au>
how are you backing up? with tar? use --exclude /etc/apache/conf also you should backup /var/lib/samba and /var/cache/samba Scott Gifford wrote:> Hello, > > I ran into an interesting problem earlier today. I have a Unix > machine I maintain in a largely Windows shop. They use Windows Backup > for their backups, and so I created a readonly share of the entire > filesystem with one user, "backup", who is an admin user. This lets > them back up the entire Unix machine by attaching to the "backup" > share, but nothing can be changed. So far so good. > > I'm backing up just essential files on the system, "/etc", "/home", > and "/usr/local". We started running the backup, and it first > estimated 3GB, which is about right. As it ran, though, it kept > increasing its estimate; we stopped it at about 20GB. Closer > inspection showed that it was confused by circular links to > directories. > > The default Apache configuration on our system has a circular link, > with "/etc/apache/conf" -> "/etc/apache". I believe this is for > compatibility, since Apache configuration files used to be in > "/etc/apache/conf", but that's beside the point. This is installed by > the OS, so I'm reluctant to remove it, since other packages could > depend on it being present. > > The problem was that circular link. Samba would resolve the symlink > for the client, and so the client would recurse into a directory it > was already in, and so just keep backing up forever. > > I looked at disabling symlinks, but the docs said this will return > errors when they are read. I suspect this would upset the backup > software. > > Does anybody have a suggestion for dealing with this? > > Thanks, > > ---Scott. >
this is easy one to fix simply don't follow symlinks adding the following to smb.conf under the share definition should stop it. follow symlinks = no regards ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Damien Dye BSC(hon) IT and Telecommunications Engineer Mckenna Group Lawn Road Industrial Estate Lawn Road Carlton-in-Lindrick Worksop Nottinghamshire United Kingdom S81 9LB Email : damiend@mckennagroup.co.uk Tel : (44) 01909541414 Direct : (44) 01909541462 Fax : (44) 01909541415 Web : www.mckennagroup.co.uk Company Registered in England, Company Registration Number 1713320 Registered address Lawn Road, Carlton-in-Lindrick, Worksop, Notts, S81 9LB ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------- Original Message -------- Subject: [Samba] Circular links and backups (18-Jan-2008 1:53) From: sgifford@suspectclass.com To: damiend@mckennagroup.co.uk> Hello, > > I ran into an interesting problem earlier today. I have a Unix > machine I maintain in a largely Windows shop. They use Windows Backup > for their backups, and so I created a readonly share of the entire > filesystem with one user, "backup", who is an admin user. This lets > them back up the entire Unix machine by attaching to the "backup" > share, but nothing can be changed. So far so good. > > I'm backing up just essential files on the system, "/etc", "/home", > and "/usr/local". We started running the backup, and it first > estimated 3GB, which is about right. As it ran, though, it kept > increasing its estimate; we stopped it at about 20GB. Closer > inspection showed that it was confused by circular links to > directories. > > The default Apache configuration on our system has a circular link, > with "/etc/apache/conf" -> "/etc/apache". I believe this is for > compatibility, since Apache configuration files used to be in > "/etc/apache/conf", but that's beside the point. This is installed by > the OS, so I'm reluctant to remove it, since other packages could > depend on it being present. > > The problem was that circular link. Samba would resolve the symlink > for the client, and so the client would recurse into a directory it > was already in, and so just keep backing up forever. > > I looked at disabling symlinks, but the docs said this will return > errors when they are read. I suspect this would upset the backup > software. > > Does anybody have a suggestion for dealing with this? > > Thanks, > > ---Scott. > -- > To unsubscribe from this list go to the following URL and read the > instructions: https://lists.samba.org/mailman/listinfo/samba > > To: samba@lists.samba.org