OT : Debian VPS for backup through SFTP protocol for a win10 client

[rudu]

Hello,

I've set up openssh-server on a debian bullseye VPS which serves as a
backup for some folders of debian testing laptops.
I'm using luckybackup for the clients part and all seems fine so far.
Now I'm asked to add a pair of win10 boxes to the clients of that VPS,
and I don't know how I could do this.
I tried successfully to mount my VPS volume as a network drive using
SSHFS for windows :
https://github.com/winfsp/sshfs-win
But I can't find a way or a software (preferably free) able to schedule
some incremental backup on it.

I know I'm a bit OT on this, but maybe someone has already been there
and could send me in the right direction.

Thanks for reading me anyway,
Rudu

[Gareth Evans]

Hi Rudu,

I must admit to not having actually done this with Windows, but as no one has yet replied with concrete experience, some ideas:

Borgbackup is excellent

https://borgbackup.readthedocs.io/en/stable/

and is said to work on Windows via either Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL)

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/install

or Cygwin

https://www.cygwin.com/

For the latter approach, the script below (or one like it) may be useful:

https://github.com/santiagobiali/borg-cygwin

Alternatively, BackupPC supports Windows:

https://backuppc.github.io/backuppc

Alternatively, rsync (again via WSL or Cygwin) or cwrsync may be useful.

https://www.itefix.net/cwrsync

It might be simpler (or at least another option is...) to use rsync to sync changes to the server, then use borg to create local (automatically deduplicated) archives on the server, from the ever-current/latest backup.

I would be interested to know if you discover anything else good for Windows.

robocopy + server-side borg might work (and might be simpler than Cygwin/WSL etc), but I'm not sure if robocopy is capable of operating beyond the LAN. All of the examples I can find, such as

https://recoverit.wondershare.com/computer-backup/sync-changes-only-with-robocopy.html

https://pureinfotech.com/robocopy-transfer-files-fast-network-windows-10/

make use of local hostnames or local IP addresses, though if you can mount sshfs as a drive/folder that may not be an issue.

I'd be interested to hear how you get on, however you approach it.

Best wishes,
Gareth

[Gareth Evans]

On Thu 29 Sep 2022, at 00:29, Gareth Evans <dono...@fastmail.fm> wrote:
[...]

> Alternatively, BackupPC supports Windows:
>
> https://backuppc.github.io/backuppc

Actually rsync (as opposed to tar or SMB over the internet) seems to be the only BackupPC option for a Windows backup source where the backup server is remote, so either cygwin or WSL or cwrsync are required here too afaics. BackupPC also deduplicates backups though, with optional compression.

See "Features"
https://backuppc.github.io/backuppc/info.html

[Bottenberg, Michael]

Am 29.09.2022 03:43, schrieb Gareth Evans:
> On Thu 29 Sep 2022, at 00:29, Gareth Evans <dono...@fastmail.fm>
> wrote:
> [...]
>> Alternatively, BackupPC supports Windows:
>>
>> https://backuppc.github.io/backuppc
>
> Actually rsync (as opposed to tar or SMB over the internet) seems to
> be the only BackupPC option for a Windows backup source where the
> backup server is remote, so either cygwin or WSL or cwrsync are
> required here too afaics. BackupPC also deduplicates backups though,
> with optional compression.

I'm using burp [1] which is also a simple backup solution of that kind.
It offers a Windows client with VSS support.

[1] https://burp.grke.org/
https://github.com/grke/burp

But for Rudu, who is already using luckybackup, it's probably the best
idea to use the luckybackup Windows-Client? At least as a short-term
solution. For a long-term solution there's maybe other solutions
preferable? As the project seems to be "stalled" ... !? (I don't know)

hede

[rudu]

Thank you very much Gareth and Hede for your help.
I'll investigate your suggestions ASAP.
I had configured a BackupPC server in the LAN once, who could "pull"
backups from Linux and windows boxes, but now some of the staff are
working from different places now, hence the necessity of a alternative
which could "push" its backups online.

Thanks again,
Rudu