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Re: [LUG] FOG backup services - notathome servers.

 

On 27/12/13 17:41, Mesar Hameed wrote:
> On Fri 27/12/13,16:45, bad apple wrote:
>> On 27/12/13 07:35, Mesar Hameed wrote:
>>> I am doing something like this with git-annex, across multiple 
>>> sites for personal data (approx 800 gb). It helps by not having
>>> a single point of failure (central server),, and I can easely
>>> ensure that each file is in at least x distinct locations.
>>> 
>>> git-annex does support encryption, so all that is required from
>>> a fellow data sharer is an open ssh port and git-annex on
>>> their machine.
>>> 
>>> People just starting with git-annex might want to try the 
>>> assistant, but it is still somewhat buggy. I would definitely 
>>> recommend trying out the command line interface for any
>>> serious usage.
>>> 
>>> In the last two or so years,, it really has simplified my file
>>>  management life including redundancy worries.
>>> 
>>> For more info please see: http://git-annex.branchable.com/
>> 
>> Whilst this does look quite interesting, how has it solved the 
>> notorious git issues with large files and binaries?
> 
> Think of it as an content/location management layer on top of rsync
> ( other transport layers available), the git repo only contains
> meta information about the files, and their locations and symlinks
> to blobs.  These blobs are stored in a known location, but not in
> git. If not available in the current repo, it will try to get it
> from one of the other configured remotes, or tell you to make the
> repo available.
> 
> http://git-annex.branchable.com/how_it_works/
> 
>> If you're shunting 800Gb of data about happily presumably this
>> has either been ignored or solved somehow (I'm guessing the
>> former).
> 
> solved, see above. It is good for static content files, such as
> music, videos etc, but need additional attension when trying to
> share changing content files such as vm images.
> 
>> Surely you're not just moving 800Gb of text files between
>> machines.
> 
> Binary in the real sence.
> 
> 
>> Love to see what your commit logs look like - completely
>> unreadable I imagine.
> 
> If you use the assistant probably,  but if you use the command line
> it is as good or as bad as you make them. The attached files
> contains some commits. The git-annex branch which is used by the
> software to sync and to track metadata is less readable, but there
> is no need to read those commits.
> 
> I recommend having a look at the walkthrough and setting up two
> test repos.
> 
> 
> thanks, Mesar


Yeah, even a cursory read through the actual site (which I have now
done) would have told me all of that - serves me right for not RTFM I
guess. Knowing how git fails to handle even relatively large files and
binaries in general should really have clued me in that git-annex
would simply be hashing the files and versioning metadata rather than
git'ing the actual files themselves...

This is looking to solve a problem that already has many solutions
available but it still looks interesting enough that I am indeed going
to fire it up and give it a test. Thanks for the info.

Regards


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