Ok, I’ve finally decided to get off my butt and do something about making backups of all the precious family data. Up until now it has just been waiting to fall into a digital black hole.\r\n\r\n### Ingredients\r\n* one linux server\r\n* enough hard disk space to make backups\r\n* family PCs running Windows that have precious data on them\r\n* a home network\r\n* General information about using snapshot/rsync backup method\r\n* snapback2 backup software\r\n\r\nFrom here on, I’ll suppose that the server, windows PCs and network are already installed.\r\n\r\nTo get a working backup system, do the following\r\n\r\n* Install Config::ApacheFormat from CPAN\r\n\r\n perl -MCPAN -e shell\r\n cpan> install Config::ApacheFormat\r\n* Install snapback2\r\n* Create /etc/snapback2.conf containing something like this with a Directory directive for each PC\r\n\r\n Hourlies 4\r\n Dailies 7\r\n Weeklies 4\r\n Monthlies 12\r\n #AutoTime Yes\r\n AutoTime No\r\n Compress No\r\n Debug 4\r\n\r\n #AdminEmail backups@yourdomain.org\r\n AdminEmail you@yourdomain\r\n AlwaysEmail Yes\r\n\r\n LogFile /var/log/snapback.log\r\n ChargeFile /var/log/snapback.charges\r\n\r\n Exclude core.\r\n\r\n SnapbackRoot /etc/snapback\r\n\r\n #DestinationList /mnt/backup1 /mnt/backup2\r\n DestinationList /root/snapshot\r\n\r\n RsyncShell none\r\n Directory /mnt/FranksDocs/\r\n Directory /mnt/JonsDocs/\r\n Directory /home/share/\r\n\r\n Run snapback2 from cron every hour\r\n\r\n 0 * * * * /usr/bin/snapback2\r\n* Configure PCs to share documents read only\r\n* Use automount and Samba to access the documents on the PC hard disks\r\n * Put the following into /etc/auto.master\r\n\r\n /mnt file:/etc/auto.mnt\r\n * For each PC add something like this into /etc/auto.mnt\r\n\r\n + FranksDocs -fstype=smbfs,username=guest,password=,ro,fmask=755,dmask=755 ://192.168.0.4/FranksDocs\r\n * make sure automount is started at boot time (symbolic link in /etc/rc5.d)\r\n * Export backups locally read-only through NFS (/etc/exports)\r\n * /root/snapshot/localhost/mnt/FranksDocs 127.0.0.1(secure,ro,no_root_squash)\r\n execute exportfs -a\r\n * Mount read-only file system accessible to users (/etc/fstab)\r\n * 127.0.0.1:/root/snapshot/localhost/mnt/FranksDocs /snapshot/FranksDocs nfs ro,addr=127.0.0.1 0 0\r\n o create mount point /snapshot/FranksDocs\r\n * Export using Samba so users can access their backups\r\n * Create /etc/samba/smb.conf\r\n\r\n + # Global Parameters\r\n [global]\r\n workgroup = YOURWORKGROUP\r\n security = SHARE\r\n server string =\r\n #printing = CUPS\r\n #printcap name = CUPS\r\n disable spoolss = Yes\r\n #show add printer wizard = No\r\n wins support = yes\r\n + [SaveFrank]\r\n comment = Recover old versions of Frank’s files here\r\n path = /snapshot/FranksDocs\r\n read only = Yes\r\n force user = share\r\n force group = family\r\n guest ok = Yes\r\n nt acl support = No\r\n That’s it you’re done