> From: [email protected]
> To: [email protected]
> Date: 19/11/2012 23:54
> Subject: Re: [rdiff-backup-users] Weird behavior of rdiff-backup :
> founding diffs while there isn't
> Sent by: [email protected]
>
> On 11/19/2012 11:19 AM, [email protected] wrote:
> >
> > So I think here is the key. You can see that uname is once void and
once
> > filled with the user name.
> > It also appears that "faulty" changes can be of 2 sorts :
> > - Uname was void and is now filled
> > - Uname was filled and is now void
> >
> > Now, running a "stat" command on a file where uname is currently void
(in
> > rdiff mirror) correctly returns the owner name.
> >
> > A strange thing remains : running a rdiff-backup --compare-at-time 2B
(or
> > even 3B or 4B) on a folder chere files changed returns "No changes
found.
> > Directory matches archive data.".
> > Notice that --compare-hash-at-time or --compare-full-at-time returns
the
> > same.
> > So is it possible that documentation tells that --compare-at-time do
the
> > same as when a backup is runned, but that uname is actually used only
for
> > true backups and not for --compare option ?
> >
> > The last weird thing is that if I browse through the "increments/"
folder,
> > I will find a very small .diff file for each changed file.
> > Example with the first file listed above :
> > --------------------
> > hexdump -C VirtualBox.xml.2012-11-16T23\:50\:04+01\:00.diff
> > 00000000 72 73 02 36 46 00 04 35 00 |rs.6F..5.|
> > --------------------
> >
> > But this is not the most important as preventing rdiff-backup viewing
> > changes shall prevent also these increments to be stored.
> >
> > So question is : why are these "uname" once here and once gone ?
> >
> > I see 4 main differences between the working system and this one that
> > could lead to that :
> > - Hard drive is a RAID 1 (working system doesn't have RAID), but I
don't
> > think it is the reason as it is pure hardware, and there is the FS
over.
> > - Source partition is ext4 (working system is ext3).
> > - Owners (i.e. uname) are LDAP users and LDAP server isn't on the
faulty
> > machine (it is on the working one). So users are not listed in the
> > /etc/passwd file.
> > - Kernel is 2.6 (working system is 3.2) and maybe one of the above
> > characteristics (or another one) is badly managed by 2.6 kernels.
>
> By default, rdiff-backup tries to preserve user _names_, not numeric
UIDs.
> This is obviously going to be a problem if one machine is able to map
> UIDs to names and the other is not. I'd look into why the faulty
machine
> is apparently unable to contact the LDAP server to do the mapping. You
> might see if the "--preserve-numerical-ids" option masks the problem,
> but, frankly, I doubt it.
>
> The tiny change files are basically saying, "There is no change." You
> will get that any time there is a metadata-only change. That file is
> required to exist if any change at all occurred.
>
> --
> Bob Nichols "NOSPAM" is really part of my email address.
> Do NOT delete it.
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> rdiff-backup-users mailing list at [email protected]
> https://lists.nongnu.org/mailman/listinfo/rdiff-backup-users
> Wiki URL:
http://rdiff-backup.solutionsfirst.com.au/index.php/RdiffBackupWiki
Hi Bob,
I also think problem is definitely LDAP, more precisely that machine is
not able to get access to LDAP server during a time lap.
And I think I found the reason (actually when waking up on this morning
(seems it was good to sleep on it). ;-)
The 2 machines are starting their respective backup at the same hour and
the one with the LDAP server is shutting it down during backup
(voluntarily) to prevent partial/corrupted data backup.
Thus the other machine is probably not able to resolve user names during a
small time.
So a good way to fix the issue will probably to postpone one the backup to
an hour where I'm sure that the other one is no more running.
However I think that the "--preserve-numerical-ids" option that you
suggested can also do the job. So I have add it to the rdiff-backup so it
will be tested during next backup.
Then only I will time shift one of the backup, but if the option is well
working, that will be an extra data-safety feature.
When I will have test everything, I will keep you updated so all your
efforts finally get an answer (you can expect it by the end of the week).
:-)
Here I should say I'm a little bit confused to have not think about that
before posting on the mailing list (maybe it could have preserve your
time)... :-|
So I'm more than very thankful to you for all your complete and helpful
answers. ;-)
Thanks a lot, I will keep you updated very soon.
PS : one small thing I can share. During investigations, I often have to
analyze file_statistics....data.gz files. Thus I quickly use this
practical bash line :
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
user@machine:~$ (gunzip -d | gawk -F" " '{if ($0 !~ /NA$/) print $0;}' |
less) < /BACKUP/FOLDER/rdiff-backup-data/file_statistics.THE_DATE.data.gz
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
That will list all lines where IncrementSize is not "NA". If you remove
the '~', you will get the opposite. Hope it can help someone. ;-)
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