Automated Backups of Windoze with rsync
 

I have a server running rsync (daemon), and a bunch of Windoze laptops and desktops on the same network. The server has massive, RAID1 capacity. I have set up the Windoze systems so they can back up specific directories to the rsync server, each user being password-protected from interfering with other's backups (the users have identity only as far as the rsync system is concerned, they have no linux log-in identity).

This all works very well, except for the human component:mad: . They regularly "forget" to fire up cygwin and issue the backup command, so their backups are often out-of-date.

I would like to automate the process, and eliminate the users from the process!!!(heard that before?)I can fire up cygwin at windoze startup (put it in the "startup" folder), but I have no idea how to go about passing the rsync initiation command to Cygwin once it is started. If I could do that, I could get an automated backup session happening at boot time. Can anyone tell me how/if it is possible to pass the rsync command "automagically" to the Cygwin subsystem at start-time?

Alternatively, is there a way to hijack the cygwin shut-down process, so that the auto-backup is forced at shut-down, and collects everything from the latest session, rather than starting at system startup, when it will collect everything from the startup before the current one...I would guess not, but I have to ask!

Gimme a Clue!

Jimbo

As this is really a Windows question, I have moved it to General

Could you not create a scheduled task in Windows to do the back up? Maybe with a script...?

Thanks for moving it Xavier, I wasn't sure where to put it, it seemed to combine both windoze and linux/unix:scratch:

That's the thing, I probably could, I'm a reasonable scripter in *NIX, and I know the individual commands and that they work, but I have a problem of ignorance with starting a program in windoze, then getting the windoze batch file that just started that application to issue a linux-like command into the application.

I'm googling hard, but getting no progress :confused:

Any help gratefully received, I really am THICK in this area, so make it simple :)