Saturday, November 20, 2010

Backup on Ubuntu (Samba or Windows Share)

Intro
These notes are my reminder notes on how to use rsync for backup with Samba or Windows shares on your LAN.

Installing Backup Tools
The following tools are needed:
  • Samba file system (smbfs)
  • Grapical interface for rsync (grsync)
Install the tools with:
sudo apt-get install smbfs grsync

"Map" remote share
Create folder for mounting remote share:
mkdir /home/username/smb
mkdir /home/username/smb/backup


Backup process
Step1: Mount remote share:
smbmount //samba_server_name/samba_share /home/username/smb/backup -o username=samba_username,password=samba_password

Step2: Synchronize folders
run Grsync, by click on Applications->Internet->Grsync


This happened to be working great for me. If you want to backup the whole home folder be careful to mount your samba share somewhere else (not as subfolder within home). Grsync is nice front GUI for rsync.
I am using this setup to perform daily backups of my Documents folder to the remote Samba share. Grsync can be used with a local hard drive or USB key without need to mount remote samba share.

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