OT: Edge on Linux - Issue.

[Alias for filepro]

Sigh. You go away for a few days and ...

By the tone of this, I'm never going to convince Mark of the rightness or wrongness of any action / response, so I'm hesitant to respond, but...

1) /media is considered a system directory in Linux. It contains only mount points, and causes large, irrelevant backups when things are mounted. These generally cause lots of headaches, full tapes, etc.
    http://www.pathname.com/fhs/pub/fhs-2.3.html#MEDIAMOUNTPOINT

2) When you install BackupEDGE, one of the last things it does is pop up a big screen that says nothing but...
    Excluding /media directory from backup automatically!
    
    You MUST press Enter to continue.

I didn't print the screen shot out of respect for this group's policies, but I just tested it again to refresh my own memory.

It really doesn't matter what the instructions are when a product's install program sends you a message. Ignoring them can have bad consequences.

We see this most often when people install our product in 60 day demo mode, and it prints the date the product will stop working during installation (and waits for an approval), and then every day in printed and emailed backup reports when the 60 day period is about to end (and when they run edgemenu), but when they call us after the demo has run out for an activation it is an emergency. There's only so much a company can do.

Others ignore all the reports, never change the tape, never clean the tape drive, and then something bad happens. Our support email box is full of interesting stories.

That doesn't solve your problem, I know. I guess you needed to vent to someone. But someone put files where they shouldn't have AND ignored BackupEDGE's warning warning that it wasn't going to back them up.

Tom Podnar
Microlite

------ Original Message ------
From: Fairlight <fairlite at fairlite.com>
Date: Tuesday, October 6th, 2009 6:39 PM EDT
To: filePro Mailing List <filepro-list at lists.celestial.com>
Subject: OT: Edge on Linux - Issue.

A lot of people here rely on Backup Edge to perform their backups and
restores--enough so that I feel a warning is not out of line for Linux
users.

By default, Edge ships/populates /etc/edge.exclude.  This file was found by
me with the assistance of Microlite tech support when they had me enable
advanced mode and edit the domain.  The config screen lists the file as
optional, but it's there after a virgin installation without me ever having
populated it.

Turns out, on the -original- system to which I'm trying to restore, this
would also have been the case.  In that file, /proc and /sys are sensibly
excluded (there are files there that "never end", such as /proc/kcore).

What is -NOT- sensible is the default exclusion of the /media tree.  I can
see all sorts of rationales for why one might think to exclude /media,
seeing as what it's typically used for are mount points for removable media
like floppies, CDROM, DVD, etc.  

In this case, however, someone (not me...far prior to my involvement by
over a year) decided that /media would be a good place to put permanent
data directories, which were then shared out to workstation computers.

Prior to the system being rebuilt, it was verified that backups were
successful and verified, and rather than -just- rely on those, I also did
an "Unscheduled Full Backup" from the Backup menu.  This apparently used
the default exclusion list.  The previous admin had never been arsed to
actually check his backups and make sure the files were getting backed up.

Upshoot?  A -lot- of data was lost, that never should have been.

WHEN I "CLICK" something that says "Unscheduled FULL Backup", I am -not-
expecting, "Unscheduled Full Backup Except What We Think Is Best",
"Unexpected KindaSortaMostlyFull Backup", or even "Unscheduled Cross Your
Fingers and Pray Microlite Knows Best".  I'm expecting a FULL backup.  I
checked, and there's a "[Modify Excludes]".  Only /proc is listed.  Down at
the bottom, there's a tiny checkbox for "Use /etc/edge.exclude".  Thing is,
you have to drill down to actually see that.  I'm also not expecting
"Unscheduled Full Backup Unless You Didn't Drill Down A Screen and Modify
the Default Excludes that Include Something That Shouldn't Be There".

I'm expecting FULL.

I lay the failure in long-term verification at the feet of the admin that
not only knew the files were stored in /media, but who put them there to
begin with.  I'm laying the failure of my "Full" backup, however, at the
feet of Microlite, who decided that there should be excludes of anything
but /proc and /sys in a default scenario.  Well, partial blame goes to the
people that never informed me, "Hey, stuff is stored under /media."  In
reality, I can't blame them much, since 1) the end-users didn't know where
the data was kept, and 2) the admin apparently "thought" it was getting
backed up and wouldn't have thought to tell me anyway, if he couldn't be
arsed to check the backup listings for a year and a half.  Mostly I blame a
really crappy default by Microlite.

I don't use Edge often.  I've only ever really had to restore from it
before recently.  But damn, for something that's supposed to be
user-friendly, they really screwed the pooch on the default behaviour of
"Unscheduled Full Backup", so that someone wholly unfamiliar with their
software doesn't actually -get- a FULL backup by default.  Who the hell
expects anything but /proc and /sys to be in the default?

I've found a number of issues with Edge that I take personal issue with,
but they're forgivable.  This one, however, is not.

Lest anyone else be bitten by the same issue (especially going into a
situation on a system with next to no intel from anyone), I'm putting this
out there as a warning to the unsuspecting.

mark->
-- 
Fairlight->   ||| "My idea of rebooting is kicking   | Fairlight Consulting
  __/__      ||| someone in the ass twice." --      |
 <__<>__>     ||| Anonymous Mousepad                 | http://www.fairlite.com
    /        |||                                    | info at fairlite.com
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