Re: Amazon S3 and Windows 2003 - Is is possible with Cygwin

["Jay Kramer" <user=102@nabble.blu.org>]

 Thanks a lot for the advice 

Jay 

On Mon, Feb 25, 2008 at 11:52 AM, Tom Metro <[hidden email]> wrote: 
> James Kramer wrote: 
>  > I was trying to think of an easy way to back up my file systems at 
>  > work that run off a Win 2003 server.  I would like to use the Amazon 
>  > S3 online storage. 
>  > ... 
> 
> > Can I use Cygwin to run the Linux version of the Amazon S3 script and 
>  > back up my windows directories. 
> 
>  Perhaps, but before going that route I'd explore these options first: 
> 
>  Take a look at the S3 "Solutions Catalog"[1] and find an S3 client that 
>  is designed to run on Windows. JungleDisk[2], for example, is a popular 
>  choice that runs on multiple platforms, but isn't free. 
> 
>  If you can't find something suitable that works natively on Windows, I'd 
>  next take a look at some of the solutions written in multi-platform 
>  languages, such as Perl, Java, or Ruby. These will run on Windows 
>  without the Cygwin compatibility environment. This blog post[3] lists a 
>  bunch of them. 
> 
>  1. 
>  http://solutions.amazonwebservices.com/connect/kbcategory.jspa?categoryID=66
>  2. http://jungledisk.com/
>  3. http://jeremy.zawodny.com/blog/archives/007641.html
> 
> 
> 
>  > It there any special parameters that I need to use to differentiate 
>  > between Linux and Unix files--I know that Windows stores files 
>  > slightly differently than *nix. 
> 
>  The line endings on text files are different, but any backup system that 
>  properly preserves the content of files, regardless of where it is 
>  stored, should transparently store Windows files. What characters are 
>  legal in file names also differ, but generally UNIX is less restrictive 
>  than Windows, so using a tool design for UNIX won't impose any problems. 
> 
>  There are some Windows-specific options for rsync, but if you're going 
>  to be backing up to S3, you won't be using rsync. (For a bit about why, 
>  see [4][5].) At best you'll be using a tool that approximates the 
>  benefits of rsync. (It looks like their are some people using Amazon's 
>  Elastic Compute Cloud to build true rsync services layered on top of S3, 
>  but I don't know if any of these services are currently available or 
>  cost effective.) 
> 
>  4. http://guillaume.filion.org/blog/archives/2007/02/rsync_algorithm_s3.php
>  5. http://www.google.com/search?q=s3+rsync
> 
> 
>  > For that matter, if I were to back up my windows partition... 
> 
>  Usually when someone speaks of backing up a partition, they're referring 
>  to doing a low-level image of the partition, including partition tables 
>  and the file system structure. None of the S3 tools are designed to do 
>  this, that I'm aware of. They're all designed to work with individual 
>  files. While you could using a partition imaging tool to create a file, 
>  and then one of the tools above to transfer it to S3, it would be very 
>  bandwidth inefficient unless the tool was specifically designed to split 
>  up the source file into multiple files (chunks) on the S3 side. 
> 
>   -Tom 
> 
>  -- 
>  Tom Metro 
>  Venture Logic, Newton, MA, USA 
>  "Enterprise solutions through open source." 
>  Professional Profile: http://tmetro.venturelogic.com/
>