Todd, Thanks for your comments. I was not very clear on how I am making the backups. Linux boxes - The machine with the usb drive attached is running rsnapshot (ssh & rsync) to backup all the Linux boxes to the usb drive. The rsnapshot script is run by cron at appropriate times. Restoring from the backups will most likely be via ssh/cp or maybe an rsync if I need to move a lot of files. MacOS - the one laptop will access the usb drive over NFS using some native MacOS backup application. I could have used Samba, but it is slower than NFS, so I thought I would give NFS a try. I have to buy some software for the Mac box to read/write ext4, but it is not very expensive. Restores will be via NFS mount on the Mac box. I am a little out of my depth with the Mac box (Macbook Pro). Do you think I should switch to Samba for the MacOS backup? Thanks! Mark On Fri, Dec 26, 2014 at 1:45 PM, Todd Millecam wrote: > NFS exports might not be the technology you want to use. If it's > possible, I'd setup an rsync script, because that will let you preserve > user permissions, directory structure, time stamp, and let you resume > partial backups, and it's much easier to set it up on a timer via a cron > script--it takes about 20 minutes to learn how to use and script with so > it's really a good time investment. I was in a shop that did NFS exports > for a while only to find the backups weren't always viable and only had > about a 70% success rate for a usable nightly backup. When we switched > over to rsync, we would only get one bad backup every two months. > NFS just backs things up based on the Unix User ID in /etc/passwds (or > whatever PAM authentication module you're using, so you'd really need to > setup NIS in your house for this to work properly) on the host machine. If > the user doesn't exist, it will preserve the user id and permissions by > default, but if that user/group doesn't exist on the server hosting the > backup, then you won't have read-write permissions to restore it. > > On Fri, Dec 26, 2014 at 12:52 PM, Mark Phillips < > mark@phillipsmarketing.biz> wrote: > >> I am setting up a usb drive to act as a NAS for backing up a couple of >> computers (Linux and Mac) on my network. I have it running, but I want to >> make sure I have the correct settings. >> >> I read quite a few Debian and Ubuntu howtos about NFS, but they sometimes >> offered conflicting information. For the backups, I want to preserve the >> file permissions, time stamp, etc. >> >> In /etc/exports I have >> >> /media/backup >> 192.xxx.xxx.0/24(rw,sync,root_squash,no_subtree_check,fsid=0,insecure) >> >> The insecure is for Macs to access on ports other than 1024....at least >> that is what one article said. It does not mean the connection is >> insecure.... >> >> /etc/fstab for the usb drive >> >> UUID=6997d1c2-5ed7-4f32-9d5e-564cadd7bc6c /media/backup ext4 >> rw,nodev,noexec,noatime,nodiratime,sync,data=ordered 0 0 >> >> Thanks! >> >> Mark >> >> --------------------------------------------------- >> PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.phxlinux.org >> To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings: >> http://lists.phxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss >> > > > > -- > Todd Millecam > > --------------------------------------------------- > PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.phxlinux.org > To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings: > http://lists.phxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss >