Usually the Windows PCs store the user profiles on the server. Backing the user profiles can then be done as part of backing up the whole server. You might have some other files though which are not part of the user profile. Backing up these files can be easily done using rsnapshot and autofs.

We’ll use autofs to setup file sharing between the Windows PCs and the Linux server. This is especially useful for computers which are not always connected to the network like laptops, although people do turn off their desktops as well from time to time. What autofs allows us to do is to activate file sharing only when it’s needed for the purpose of doing a backup.

Performing the actual backup will be done using rsnapshot. This tool, which I already mentioned in a previous post, allows space efficient backups which are stored incrementally while offering ease of access usually associated with full backups.

Before setting up autofs we need to create a network share on the Windows PC. Remember the user and the password since we’ll need them later on. In this article I’m going to assume the user name is backup and the password is secret but you should use something more difficult to guess depending on your security requirements. I’m also assuming the Windows domain is called company. On the Linux server you then need to make sure you’ve got autofs installed. Installation of autofs is not covered here but usually it’s as simple as executing yum install autofs. You need to edit /etc/auto.master file and add this line

/smb /etc/auto.windows --timeout=60

Then you create the file /etc/auto.windows containing the following, in a single line:

<share> -fstype=smbfs,
credentials=/etc/auto.windows.<credentials file>,
uid=<user>,gid=<group>,
fmask=0755,dmask=0755 ://<windows PC>/<network share>

This must be written on a single line, with no separating spaces starting from -fstype to dmask=0755

<share> is the name of directory where you want to mount the network share from Windows PC.

/etc/auto.windows.<credentials file> is the name of file where you store the user name and password needed to access the network share on Windows PC. In our case it will look like this:

username = backup
password = secret
domain = company


After these preparations it’s time to tell the autofs daemon about these changes by executing service autofs reload or a corresponding command. You should be able now to see that the network share gets automatically mounted when you execute ls /smb/<share>. After 60 seconds the share will be unmounted.

Now the last part – setting up rsnapshot. Just follow the instructions for rsnapshot as if the directory /smb/<share> was local. Thanks to autofs, rsnapshot doesn’t need to know that it’s really on a different computer running Windows. Remember to set up a cron job if this is your first time you’re using rsnapshot.

That’s it. You’ve configured an automatic backup of a Windows computer using Linux. You can repeat this procedure on further Windows clients.

P.S. Another approach is described here but it has the drawback that it requires installing additional software on the Windows PCs.

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After doing some research I decided to purchase Enermax EB307S-B Jazz. It just arrived today (thanks alternate.de for a quick delivery). As advertised the enclosure allows a very quick installation. There’s no need to use any tools. Simply unlock the enclosure, slide out the cover and lift it. Now you can install the hard disk – this takes another 15 seconds. Replace the cover, lock it and that’s it. Now just connect power and the USB cable. All this took barely any longer than if the disk was already installed.

Enermax Jazz has a very nice design. Brushed aluminum housing with steel mesh provides very good cooling and sturdiness. It also looks cool since you can see the disk inside. Because the casing is a mesh it doesn’t need a fan which makes it suitable for quiet environments. But be careful with liquids – if you spill anything on the enclosure you will probably fry your data!

After connecting the enclosure to the file server I’ve formatted it. The file server runs Linux so I’ve used ext3 file system but you could use this hardware also with a Mac or Windows machine. Then another couple of minutes to decide what to backup (more or less everything) and I’ve started the copy process. It’s been running for the last 40 minutes and so far 47 GB have been transferred to the external disk. 120 GB more to go… I’m using rsnapshot to perform the backups. It’s a really nice tool I’ve recently discovered. It creates regular snapshots of the directories you tell it to monitor. To save space it uses hard links to store files which haven’t changed since the previous snapshot. Usually that means that your backup space requirements are only about 20-30% more than the amount of data you have, even if you want to have a history of your files going back a few months.

I like Jazz.

Btw, if anybody from UK wants to buy this enclosure I’d suggest to check first if you can get it from a shop on the continent. Price will be much lower.

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