hi, Am Dienstag, den 25.11.2008, 15:44 -0500 schrieb Jeffrey J. Kosowsky: > Achim J. Latz wrote at about 17:42:17 +0100 on Tuesday, November 25, 2008: > > For my company Qustodium Internet Security, I am in the process of > > developing a VM appliance that will enable small (Windows-centric) networks > > to enjoy the benefits of BackupPC. > > > > Basically, the appliance runs BackupPC on top of a special Ubuntu version > > and will be very simple to configure. The draft announcement is available > > on the project web page [0]. > > > > Clearly QBA is covered by the GPL, based on its components such as Ubuntu > > JeOS, SetACL and BackupPC. Proprietary tools such as vshadow.exe and > > dosdev.exe (see below) are not necessary for QBA to work, but the user has > > the choice to obtain those tools separately from Microsoft and enhance > > QBA$,1rys functionality significantly. > > > > In addition to the above ease-of-use, QBA addresses some limitations stated > > in the BackupPC FAQ: > > > > * "Non-Unix file attributes not backed up" > > QBA uses SetACL [1] to backup and restore Windows NTFS access control lists > > for every file and directory. The ACLs are stored for every directory > > before the backup starts in a special file called BUGBUG, and upon restore > > that data is used to recreate the ACLs for the restored files only. In > > addition, QBA uses attrib.exe (part of every Windows installation) to > > backup and restore other file attributes such as System, Hidden, Archive or > > Read-Only. > > It seems to me that the right way to do this is still to modify > BackupPC to capture the acl's from rsync and place them in the > standard attrib file structure -- just need to add keys for the new > acl attributes. This would avoid the need for a special pre-processing > acl step (along with synchronization issues if files change between > the pre-processing step and the backup) and also would avoid the need > for a new shadow directory hierarchy set up just to store acl's. Also, > since it comes for free with rsync, it doesn't add any real time to > the backup vs. the need to crawl the entire directory tree to copy out > acls. Plus rsync, automatically, would only save changes. > > I don't know about the other attributes, but rsync talks about being > able to pass extended attributes. If they can be passed too, they > should also be able to be integrated into the standard attrib file and > again save unnecessary pre-processing and storage hierarchies. > > > > > * "Locked files are not backed up" > > QBA can make use of the Volume Shadow Copy Service that was introduced with > > Windows XP to copy even open files such as Outlook .PSTs mail stores. In > > order for this to work, the user has to provide his own copies of > > vshadow.exe (part of the Volume Shadow Copy Service SDK) and dosdev.exe > > (part of Microsoft Product Support's Reporting Tools), both of which are > > free downloads. Once these files have been obtained by the user and > > integrated via the available automated GUI process, QBA will use them > > without further configuration to copy locked files. At the moment, there is > > no GUI and the files have to be simply dropped into the correct folder of > > the virtual $,1r|configuration$,1r} HD. > > Again this can be done with BackupPC. > > > > > * "Don't expect to reconstruct a complete WinXX drive" > > Since QBA addresses both the ACL and locked files issue, it remains to be > > confirmed whether this is sufficient to reconstruct a complete Windows > > drive. We anticipate that at least master boot record, partition table, > > boot sector and boot loader need more investigation, but could potentially > > be solved via the dd tool, as outlined here [2]. > > > > Yes. But this should be easy with dd and actually is independent of > the above since all the above occurs at the partition level. Also, on > restore you would of course have to marry some version of > fdisk/gparted with mkntfs to recreate the partitions and > filesystems. > > What I am not sure about is whether there is any other "magic" hiding > in the ntfs filesystem that would need to be recovered to give a full > restore. > as far as i know, there are so called streams, which allow to store file metadata in the filesystem
> > Perhaps we could pool our interest in backing up ACLs and the registry (and > > potentially the MBR) for a full Windows Disaster Recovery option in > > BackupPC? > > > > I applaud your efforts and it sounds interesting. > However, it seems to me that at least 90% of what you are trying to do > really should be done as an extension to BackupPC rather than as an > add-on kludge. The key thing seems to be adding the ability to backup > Windows acls and extended attributes -- to do that we don't need a new > set of programs but rather some relatively straightforward extensions > to BackupPC. In fact, I am surprised that people have not yet done > this. > > If you focus on getting BackupPC to do the above, then it should be > easy to add on your own additional wrapper to do whatever additional > you need to do. This would include backing up the partition table and > MBR which IMHO belongs outside of BackupPC since BackupPC really most > naturally acts at the file level. > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------- > This SF.Net email is sponsored by the Moblin Your Move Developer's challenge > Build the coolest Linux based applications with Moblin SDK & win great prizes > Grand prize is a trip for two to an Open Source event anywhere in the world > http://moblin-contest.org/redirect.php?banner_id=100&url=/ > _______________________________________________ BackupPC-users mailing list > [email protected] List: > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/backuppc-users Wiki: > http://backuppc.wiki.sourceforge.net Project: http://backuppc.sourceforge.net/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------- This SF.Net email is sponsored by the Moblin Your Move Developer's challenge Build the coolest Linux based applications with Moblin SDK & win great prizes Grand prize is a trip for two to an Open Source event anywhere in the world http://moblin-contest.org/redirect.php?banner_id=100&url=/ _______________________________________________ BackupPC-users mailing list [email protected] List: https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/backuppc-users Wiki: http://backuppc.wiki.sourceforge.net Project: http://backuppc.sourceforge.net/
