Linux – How to Automate Windows Rsync to Linux NAS

linuxrsyncwindows

Here's the scenario:

(2) Windows servers in an office

Server 1. Application Server
Server 2. Backup Server, PDC, DNS

(5) Laptops that backup to the backup server

The Backup server has Symantec Backup Exec installed and backs up the other server, than throws the backups that it does for itself and the other server into a second partition. Also, all of the laptops are configured to backup to the same partition underneath a labeled folder.

The Goal:

I want to have an rsync script backup everything on this second partition on the Windows server to another — remote — NAS device running Linux. Does anyone know this can be accomplished from a Windows to Linux platform, or anything similiar to what I want to do? I enjoy rsync and it's awesomeness, but if there is another, easier, solution out there, that'll do as well.

Also, I know that Windows doesn't use Rsync. Just the method that i'm trying to use.

Best Answer

You can use rsync via cygwin, but BackupExec already has functionality to duplicate your backups to a NAS (technically speaking, if you mount the NAS locally and then add that drive as a storage pool, you can kick off a duplication job that copies those backups to the mounted NAS drive).

If you want to use rsync, you'll need to install cygwin with OpenSSH and rsync. After that, it's just a matter of determining how you want rsync to communicate with the destination server. You'll want to setup your rsa keys to have your NAS and backup server trust each other, that way, you won't need to worry about passphrases when using rsync.

Once you have the foundation in place, the rsync command would be something like:

rsync -avze ssh /cygdrive/drive_letter/source/directory user@server:/destination/
Related Topic