Is there an easy way to backup a debian box to Win32 that is reliable for a system that has EXT3 and XFS partitions?

We have a Win32 box in our dc with a lot of drive space, and we only have 2 debian boxes so we would like to backup to the win32 box initially, and then when we add enough linux boxes to justify it, setup a dedicated rsync box.

I tried rsync for windows using cygwin and really didn't like how it was implemented.

any suggestions for something that would be reliable?

I'm not sure I fully understand you, but one of these links may help (both are excellent backup apps):

- http://backuppc.sourceforge.net/
- http://www.amanda.org/

HTH,

-jk

Basically need to backup two debian boxes to windows server with a lot of disk space. Ideally I want to have a dedicated debian box with a lot of space to do backups to using rsync, but for now I have to use a Win32 box.

It looks like BackupPC only works with *nix backup server and will not allow us to backup to Win2003 box. I believe Amanda is the same way.

Are you attempting to back up an image of the entire installation plus all of the data files? (That would be a binary image of the whole she-bang.)

-OR- Are you trying to back up individual data files?

What is the partition layout? What is each filesystem being used for? These things make a big difference. Are we talking about a mail-server? A database-server?

The next question would be: Do you intend to do the backups with the machines online and live?

More info is needed to understand and answer your question. (Added with edit.)

Trying to do a full backup of everything to make a complete restore as simple as possible. It is a mySQL/Apache box.

There is ext3 and xfs partitions. From what I understand dump is the most reliable form of backup/restore as long as you are going to the same file system. But I do not want to drop data files on the local file system. Want to be able to drop them directly to SSH drop point.