Linkstation Pro Duo Backup Disk Backup Questions

[rootdude]

   

Hey All -

 

Scenario - I am using a virtual machine backup product to make nightly backups to a Linkstation Pro Duo - and then setting a 'Disk Backup' to occur to copy the contents of the first LPD to a second LPD for DR purposes. I only want the second LPD in the chain to me a mirror of the first.

 

1] Is the appropriate backup Operation Mode just a normal backup?

2] The backups seem to occur VERY slowly. Is there any way to troubleshoot the performance of the backups? I read the procedure to stop the backup and it seems REALLY kludgey - is there some momentum to enhance this operation with an interface that a typical backup admin can follow? (backup admins aren't usually the brightest on the team, are they?)

3] How do I go about verifying the validity of the backups other than to do a test restore from the second backup device int he chain? Thoughts?

4] Where are the error logs kept?

 

Thanks in advance for help - the documentation seems pretty thin on this feature.

 

Stacey

[Colin137]

First of all, I have to give you commendations on your handle. I like it :)

 

1. For a mirror, you would want to do a Differential backup. Use "Overwrite Backup (Differential Backup)". It's the last option. This will save backups to the folder _backups in the target share.

 

2a. Aside from looking at the logs, no.

 

2b. I'll forward a feature request for you.

 

3. The backups use rsync on the standard port, TCP 873. One could conceivably check the backup integrity with rsync's comparison feature.

 

4. The logs should be in the backup destination, _backups folder. You must check the backup log option for the file to appear.

[rootdude]

   

Thanks for the kudos... love my handle - I use it quite a bit...

 

To the business...

 

1] Thanks for the suggestion - I'll alter the backup job tonight. The backup has failed twice now - latest log dump:

 

-------- BEGIN BACKUP 2009/12/14 14:30:31 array1/VMBAK -> DRBAK@array1/Backups --------
building file list ...
56 files to consider
created directory /_backups
./
VMBAK/
VMBAK/.DS_Store
VMBAK/SyncToy_e06a4fee-4914-4023-8cae-a76247c9f768.dat
VMBAK/B2B/
VMBAK/B2B/.DS_Store
VMBAK/B2B/Backup B2B.vbk
rsync: writefd_unbuffered failed to write 6727 bytes [sender]: Connection reset by peer (104)
rsync error: received SIGINT, SIGTERM, or SIGHUP (code 20) at rsync.c(242) [generator=2.6.8]
rsync: connection unexpectedly closed (110 bytes received so far) [sender]
rsync error: error in rsync protocol data stream (code 12) at io.c(463) [sender=2.6.8]
-------- END BACKUP 2009/12/14 17:15:17 array1/VMBAK -> DRBAK@array1/Backups --------

I'm not yet literate with rsync error messages or debugging - perhaps you can help me decipher the error and correct it. I'm thinking this may have to do with the ethernet frame size causing disconnects between the two Linkstations. They are both connected directly to a Cisco 4506 with no special configs - so there should be an issue regardless of the frame sizes, but maybe you have a suggestion. My switch does support jumbo frames.

 

2a] Hmmm... ok - I found the logs, obviously. The backup of another Linkstation is one of the features on the box - shouldn't it get some resources to be really usable?

 

2b] Thanks - haven't seen the request yet - I'll check the spam filter today.

 

3] I'm going to do some rsync studying.

 

4] See 2a.

 

Thanks fo rthe quick response - hopefully we can get to the bottom of the errors I'm seeing - and I'll do my part to get the feature request done.

 

-RootDude

[rootdude]

   

So, after a few minutes of research (google) - it seems like this is a bug in the version of rsync that is running on the Linkstations. Can you confirm? The workaround seems to be to configure the rsync timeouts to their maximum...

 

-RootDude