samba - Mar 2002 - Using Backup from Windows -> Samba : >4GB file limit?

Hi,
I was backup up my laptop the other day, and the Windows backup utility said
it was going to do about 17GB of data - and I was dumping this to a Samba
share from my Linux machine.  However, it looks like the data wrapped around
when it got past 4GB.  Not really sure what happened though.  When I saw
that the .bkf file was smaller (the next morning) that what a previous 'ls
-l'
showed (the night before) I cancelled the backup.
Is this something that I should expect to be able to do?  Backup my Windows
laptop to a Samba share?  I'd sure like to.  Thanks.
	-Dan

-- 
Dan A. Dickey
ddickey@charter.net

As I recall, there is a file size limit with smbfs. You might have success
by running backup software from your samba server. Tar works fine. Just
mount your windows drive as a share. I have found that over a gig or so
I need to use a multivolume backup. I used the split command:
 tar -blah options | split -options

I notice there is a multivolume option for tar, which I haven't used.

Maybe your windows software has a multivolume option, too.

The simplest thing to do is just cp -au from your samba server. That would
could backup up everything on your windows hard drive. It would involve no
fancy compression, etc, and so your chance of data loss is minimal. And,
the -u only updates new files, so, the second time you backup it goes
very fast.  The only drawback is that files you erase on your windows
hard drive will continue to exist on your samba server. This may be seen
as a bug or a feature. You could write a script to compare the files on your
windows box and your backup directory on samba and mv files off to some deep
storage when the files no longer exist on your windows drive.

Others swear by rsync.

I use both the multivolume tar and the cp -au methods. cp -au is much simpler
to implement.

Joel

On Tue, Mar 12, 2002 at 06:42:40PM -0600, Dan A.Dickey
wrote:
> Hi,
> I was backup up my laptop the other day, and the Windows backup utility
said
> it was going to do about 17GB of data - and I was dumping this to a Samba
> share from my Linux machine.  However, it looks like the data wrapped
around
> when it got past 4GB.  Not really sure what happened though.  When I saw
> that the .bkf file was smaller (the next morning) that what a previous
'ls -l'
> showed (the night before) I cancelled the backup.
> Is this something that I should expect to be able to do?  Backup my Windows
> laptop to a Samba share?  I'd sure like to.  Thanks.
> 	-Dan
> 
> -- 
> Dan A. Dickey
> ddickey@charter.net
> 
> -- 
> To unsubscribe from this list go to the following URL and read the
> instructions:  http://lists.samba.org/mailman/listinfo/samba

On Tue, 12 Mar 2002, Dan A.Dickey wrote:
> Hi,
> I was backup up my laptop the other day, and the Windows backup utility
said
> it was going to do about 17GB of data - and I was dumping this to a Samba
> share from my Linux machine.  However, it looks like the data wrapped
around
> when it got past 4GB.  Not really sure what happened though.  When I saw
> that the .bkf file was smaller (the next morning) that what a previous
'ls -l'
> showed (the night before) I cancelled the backup.
> Is this something that I should expect to be able to do?  Backup my Windows
> laptop to a Samba share?  I'd sure like to.  Thanks.
Yes, you should be able to write a 17G file to a samba share.

However, the smbd you are running on the linux server must support large
files. If it does or not depends on how it was compiled. Not sure how 
to check that ...

Also I would recommend using 2.2.3 as I believe there was some large file
related bugs in earlier 2.2s.
(btw, always list the versions used when asking questions)


You can also use smbfs and copy the files from the linux side. But you
will lose permissions and ownerships, and probably also any extended
attributes on the files. If you want a complete backup I think getting
samba as a server to support a 17G file is a better option.

To get large file support with smbfs you need to patch your kernel as well 
as samba. Patches are available here:
    http://www.hojdpunkten.ac.se/054/samba/index.html
    (2.4.18 kernel patches and 2.2.3a samba patch)

/Urban