How to avoid the copy of the same file but with different name using rsync?

jat421 · 02-26-2013, 11:39 AM

Hi, I am using rsync on windows and trying to sync a huge SQL DB file. The problem I am having is that the source file name changes everyday but the destination file will remain the same and when the names are different rsync copies the whole file again. Any ideas on how I can make this work? Thanks!

rsync.exe -avz /cygdrive/x/database_backups/default/full_backup_2013-02-25-01.00.bak /cygdrive/d/Temp/full_backup.bak

Kustom42 · 02-26-2013, 11:43 AM

So are you saying that another backup is made with a different timestamp in the filename but the files are actaully the exact same and you dont want to re-copy it again if they are?

If that is the case you could use hashing like and md5sum and compare the md5s then if they are different copy if not then exit. Would require a little scripting.

jat421 · 02-26-2013, 11:59 AM

sorry, I think was wasn't clear enough. You are right the timestamp and the filename changes everyday on the source but their could be new data added to the .bak on the source. I want to sync the source and destination files so only part of the file is transferred that is changed. Rsync can do differential sync.

Kustom42 · 02-26-2013, 12:08 PM

You don't want to do this with SQL backups. You will want to look into transaction log backups. Due to the way databases work incrementing a .bak file is not really a good option.

Basically you can do a weekly full backup of your SQL database then do daily or even hourly transaction log backups. Then if you need to restore you can apply the the t-logs up to teh date/time you want to get to.

Take a look at:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/libr...sql.80%29.aspx
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms179478.aspx

jat421 · 02-26-2013, 12:45 PM

Thanks Kustom42 for your help. Yea I was hoping I will not have to take that path but looks like that's what I might need to do then. Hopefully I can find a way to automate it as I use the destination DB on the other server for reporting and need to load it every night

. Thanks for your help!