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peachplcFlag for United States of America

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Enabling archive bit in linux for use with backup exec differencial backups

I have an issue when backing up a linux server. I am using a windows 2000 server pc with backup exec 9.1 installed all patches applied. I am trying to run a differencial backup but it always insists on backing up everything.
I am told this is because i have no archive bit set up on the file system so backup exec does not know when a file was last accessed.
At the moment we run Fedora Core 3 text daemon linux server that holds about 1.8 TB.

Is this something that can be easily fixed or is this going to be a major issue.

My knowledge of Linux is vry limited. I can log on, view files and thats about all so any help given will have to be like a dummies guide for me :o)
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Nick Upson
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linux doesn't have an archive bit, you can achieve a differential backup on the linux machine into a file and always back that up. A common tool to do thiw would be 'tar'
Actually, it's more-accurate to say there is no Archive bit (a la DOS and Winblows) in most common Linux filesystems (e.g. ext2, ext3, ReiserFS).

The Asker should understand that, unlike Winblows, Linux is not chained a single filesystem (ignoring DOS/FAT). Linux gives you choices; Winblows removes choice from you.

Now, this isn't to say that there are no Linux-hosted filesystems that have an Archive bit. NSS is just such a filesystem, but it's as commonly deployed as, say, ext3.
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So you are saying there is no way of backing up the data with a differential backup no matter what i do.

I could take the drive off and put it onto the linux box and use a different backup program i suppose, im not really limited by that aspect of it. Im more limited in the fact that i dont know anything about it with being a Windows and Mac person.

Any information would be great. Thanks
you can do a diff backup just not based upon a file-associated bit, you can easily do one that is time based, say all files changed in the last 24 hours
That sounds pretty good, but how to i initiate that from either backup exec or a different linux backup system
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Nick Upson
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The problem i see with that is that the size of the file, i think im right in saying a tar file is effectivly the same as a zip file. having a 1.8 TB zip file on a disk and then trying to recover 1 file from that in the future, its extreme, i would need another 1.5 tb just to do this.

I have used cron before as i also run rsync from one server to another for data, its just my tape backup seems to be totally useless
you would need to restore the entire file (but the file is only incemental backup) but can then extract a single file from it
Thats not really what i want to do, it would require too much space, not to mention time and effort restoring.

There must be a program out there that backs up to tape not using a single file compression agent. I assumed linux had loads of opensource products out there. There must be something that functions like backup exec or backupmypc?
can you describe what it is that those products do that you need
I need to make differential backups of lots of data. I need something that effectivly can run like a tar file (and backup files acording to date changed) but have facilities such as backup exec and they must not backup into one single file, as i do various ammounts of restores throughout the week
tar doesn't have to be into one file, you could put each partition into it's own file for example
sounds like alot of work to me, an individual file structure oul be alot better
now i cant spell, does anyone have a cure for that?
I meant to say

sounds like alot of work to me, an individual file structure would be alot better

Thanks