Confused over CIFS

[Preston Kutzner]

On Jan 14, 2009, at 3:26 PM, Ted Hilts wrote:

> Preston
>
> You seem to have grasped most of what I said.
>
> Once I get a universal backup set up which includes "backuppc"  
> working I
> will probably replace the NTFS disk which we have been talking about
> (because it will be full) with a new one formatted as ext3. Several
> months ago I was told by someone on the list that I had to install a
> Windows version of ext3 on all the XP machines -- maybe I  
> misunderstood
> them.  You seem to be saying that all I have to do is map the XP
> machines to the Ubuntu share and SMB will look after everything else.
> They are already so mapped.  So that only leaves the issue of  
> rsync.  I
> allready read that URL article on rsync.  I have a print out "How to
> regularly backup Windows XP to Ubuntu, using rsync".  There are a  
> lot of
> configuration steps.  Aside from that my worry is not the transfer
> process of rsync but rather this is not so much a backup transfer of
> data but an archive which gets put into physical place just once (and
> added to) so it can be referenced and used from one single place.   
> Every
> machine collecting data has its own local system repository which I
> destroy after a successful transfer of the data over to the "Ubuntu"
> location.  The scrapbook application has a export function that allows
> me to move data directly from the XP Pro machine (also Linux machines
> using same application) over to the mapped Ubuntu machine. HOWEVER  
> (I'm
> not yelling) the XP Home machine called "misty" cannot make the export
> happen because it is XP Home and not XP Pro.  This "misty" machine
> cannot see the Ubuntu shares for the common workgroup. That's what led
> to this whole discussion.  I tried to get help from the list as well  
> as
> commercial help but no one seems to understand the irregularity that  
> is
> occuring.  Oddly enough I do have one XP Home machine called "cic2ext"
> that does not have this irregularity (it's much older) and it can see
> and access the Ubuntu share on the NTFS disk we have been talking
> about.  The XP Home machine "misty" has all the MS updates and Service
> Packs installed but this is not the case with the "cic2ext" machine.
> That's why I do not update "cic2ext" because I think the problem is
> inherent in the MS update.  BTW the dual boot XP Home / Ubuntu machine
> came into existence because that XP Home machine showed the same
> irregularity as "misty".  So that's the reason I dont' use it and
> thought I would try Ubuntu on that machine. Also, the name of the XP
> Home machine dual booted with "Ubuntu" has the name "back-up"  
> because it
> was supposed to be the final repository not "Ubuntu".  But "Ubuntu"  
> won
> out as the dominant computing entity because I could not get "back-up"
> to see the other machines in the LAN.  The problem with "back-up" is  
> the
> exact same problem as with "misty"  -- they are both XP Home based and
> inherit this irregularity as I call it.

Alright, if I understand this, you have your worker machines map  
share(s) that "Ubuntu" is offering on the network as local drives.   
Each worker machine, when it's done with its task, takes its data and  
copies it to the mapped shares.  This is working fine for all of your  
XP Pro machines, but your XP Home machine, "misty", can't see the  
shares offered by "Ubuntu".  Therefore, you're looking for a way to  
efficiently transfer the data from "misty" to Ubuntu for storage  
(which is currently stalling).  Periodically, you're looking to take  
what's on "Ubuntu" and back it up to some other media for archival  
purposes.

Well, unfortunately, if this is truly how your set-up is configured,  
you don't have too many options.  Windows only recognizes cifs / smb  
shares natively.  So, you can't really export your shares from  
"Ubuntu" any other way.  You can possibly export your shares using  
NFS, but I don't know if this works well with NTFS or not.  Here's  
where you can get more information on an NFS client for Windows: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/324055

Depending on how you're doing your housekeeping on the "Ubuntu" box,  
you still could use rsync.  Rsync does have a switch "-W" in linux, at  
least which tells rsync to not use its normal rsync algorithm, but  
instead just copy the whole file.  It would still make use of the  
compression, though.

You'd set-up rsync to run in daemon mode on "Ubuntu" (rsyncd), edit  
the /etc/rsyncd.conf file to taste (more information by typing 'man 5  
rsyncd.conf' at the command-line) and then using the windows rsync  
client to copy files to the "Ubuntu" box.  Actual command (with  
switches and everything) would depend on your Windows implementation  
of rsync.  But, I would suggest perusing whatever included  
documentation came with it.

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