On Thu, 19 Nov 2009 08:44:44 -0800, Grant wrote:

> 2. Some of the files I back up only allow root to read.  I can run
> rsync as root on each system, but I don't allow root logins.  This
> means in order to rsync the second "sync" system with the first "sync"
> system, I must run the rsync command from the first "sync" system.
> This means I have to run rsyncd on the second "sync" system in
> addition to the first "sync" system.  I'd rather only run one instance
> of rsyncd.  Can anyone think of another option?

Allow root logins only with a key, set up a specific user on the backup
server to run the backup tasks and add that users key to the
authorized_users file on the machine to be backed up.

> 3. The rsync process always completes with "rsync error: some
> files/attrs were not transferred".  How can I get more information
> about which files this pertains to?

Run rsync with the verbose option and direct stdout and stderr to files.

> 5. If I end up with filesystem corruption on the SRC system, will that
> corruption transfer over to the DST system during an rsync, or will
> the transfer just fail?

If data is corrupted, that will be backed up. If the filesystem
corruption causes read errors, rsync will bail out.

> 6. Can I run rsyncd on a system facing the internet without fear?

Yes, as long as the rsync ports are closed in your router.

Instead of all this, I'd recommend BackupPC. It handles all of your
issues and more and is efficient at backing up multiple machines. You
could run one BackupPC server and then rsync its store to the backup
backup server. The latest version in portage is old, get the 3.x ebuild
from bgo.


-- 
Neil Bothwick

Of all the people I've met you're certainly one of them