[ubuntu-uk] Rsync Problems

[Ian Pettitt]

  On 28/07/2010 08:12, Jon Reynolds wrote:
> Hello all,
>
> I have set up an old laptop to act as a small home server at home, the
> idea being that it is quiet and low powered to be left on basically
> 24/7.
>
> Storage was an issue as I wanted it to act as a file server for music
> and somewhere to store my photos, videos etc. So in the end I have 2
> external aluminium USB enclosures for 3.5" HDDs.
>
> The problem with this is that they are 'on' constantly as there doesn't
> seem to be any way of powering them down after a period of inactivity.
> Therefore they are HOT all the time and I am concerned this may be
> killing them.
>
> I have set up a basic script to backup my web server to this home server
> once a week using rsync. I get an email from cron to show me the results
> of the backup and I seem to be getting increasing amounts of errors.
>
> Here is a selection of some of the errors from the rsync output:
>
> rsync:
> readlink_stat("/home/jonr/media/.jcrdev/home-backup/Maildir/.SWLUG/cur/1277284768.5371_1.jcrdevelopments.com:2,")
> failed: Input/output error (5)
>
> rsync: recv_generator: failed to stat
> "/home/jonr/media/.jcrdev/home-backup/Maildir/.SWLUG/cur/1277214444.13386_1.jcrdevelopments.com:2,":
> Input/output error (5)
>
> rsync: delete_file:
> unlink(Maildir/.admin/cur/1277262657.17608_1.jcrdevelopments.com:2,S)
> failed: Operation not permitted (1)
> could not make way for new regular file:
> Maildir/.admin/cur/1277262657.17608_1.jcrdevelopments.com:2,S
>
> IO error encountered -- skipping file deletion
>
> rsync: recv_generator: mkdir
> "/home/jonr/media/.jcrdev/varwww-backup/gallery2/themes/matrix/locale/ko/LC_MESSAGES"
> failed: Input/output error (5)
> *** Skipping any contents from this failed directory ***
>
> rsync error: some files could not be transferred (code 23) at
> main.c(977) [sender=2.6.9]
>
> Most of then seem to be I/O errors, which makes me concerned to the
> health of the HDDs. But maybe its an rsync thing that I am not familiar
> with.
>
> Can anyone shed a bit more light on these errors?
>
> I get similar errors when mirroring one backup HDD to the other using
> rsync too.
>
> Thanks in advance
>
> Jon Reynolds
> (j0nr)
>
Jon

I had I/O errors on my external hdd which I backup my machines to, using 
rsnapshot. I ran fsck on the drive, which corrected some errors which 
then meant it could delete the problem files.

My errors where caused by the desktop crashing and requiring a reboot, 
without the drive being umounted first.

Ian