background: currently all the company's backups are emailed overseas and to one location in the U.S. to over sized unlimited mailboxes. Sometimes the backups go through the mail servers , sometimes they don't. This was all setup before me.

Solution: The company currently has a program that runs and creates a ZIP file backup of all the data that is needed. Once that is done, it runs a little email script at midnight. Instead of running that crappy email script I want to run a FTP program/script.

I'm looking something that can FTP over a file every night and replace the old one. So instead of sending emails every night, we just send links to the file to pull off from the web for our different locations. (nonsensitive data)

I was thinking about using Wizip Professional. Any other programs out there that can do what I need?

5/5/2009 4:31:50 PM

who the fuck ever set that up to begin with should be shot

5/5/2009 4:46:51 PM

Yeah, Windows. It can zip/unzip natively.

And why in God's name are you using FTP? It's no more secure or robust than email was.

Please use any secure transmission method instead... anything.

5/5/2009 4:56:57 PM

http://www.aboutmyip.com/AboutMyXApp/DeltaCopy.jsp

Quote :

" In general terms, DeltaCopy is an open source, fast incremental backup program. Let's say you have to backup one file that is 500 MB every night. A normal file copy would copy the entire file even if a few bytes have changed. DeltaCopy, on the other hand, would only copy the part of file that has actually been modified. This reduces the data transfer to just a small fraction of 500 MB saving time and network bandwidth. In technical terms, DeltaCopy is a "Windows Friendly" wrapper around the Rsync program, currently maintained by Wayne Davison. "rsync" is primarily designed for Unix/Linux/BSD systems. Although ports are available for Windows, they typically require downloading Cygwin libraries and manual configuration. Unlike "rsync", DeltaCopy is a only available for Windows and is tightly integrated with services available only on Microsoft platforms (NT4, XP, 2000 & 2003). Here is a list of features * Incremental backup - Copies part of the file that is actually modified * Task scheduler - Profiles in DeltaCopy can run based on a schedule * Email notification - Administrators can receive email confirmation on successful as well as failed transfers * One-click restore - Backed up files can be easily restored. * Windows friendly environment - No need to manually modify configuration files or play around with command line options. "

I saw this the other day on gHacks, it might be worth a look.

[Edited on May 5, 2009 at 5:03 PM. Reason : .]

5/5/2009 4:57:45 PM

i assume the place you want to send the data to isn't on the same network/intranet? if so robocopy is pretty painless.

otherwise here's some stuff to get you started:


text file script.001.txt:
open ftp.site.net
username
pssword
cd /webspace
dir
send c:\mydocu~1\www\site.001\folder\latest.index.htm index.html
dir
close


Then make a shortcut:
C:\WINDOWS\FTP.EXE -d -s:c:\mydocu~1\www\site.001\scripts\script.001.txt


execute through scheduled tasks?

http://www.ericphelps.com/batch/samples/ftp.script.txt
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/96269

5/5/2009 5:01:17 PM

Wait wait wait wait ... is there a reason you're not using Mozy http://www.mozy.com or something similar???

I mean, welcome to the 21st century already.

5/5/2009 5:14:34 PM

Quote :

"Wait wait wait wait ... is there a reason you're not using Mozy http://www.mozy.com or something similar???"

sounds like there's a reason the files are sent where they're sent. but yeah if the files are not needed at the destination locations then mozy would be an alternative...though honestly i prefer to have my backup data (work data not home data) on my own servers vs someone elses. i would only use mozy as a 3rd level backup or something like that

5/5/2009 5:20:40 PM

look, it was just thrown at me the other week and now im finally getting around to it.

I've read into mozy as well just wanted to see what else is out there.

5/5/2009 6:07:18 PM

if you want a script...and the data isn't sensitive, then what i posted should be sufficient.

5/5/2009 9:01:33 PM

Wow, I thought we had one but I guess it's not released yet. Basically backs up files and allows you to send them to whatever media you want including FTP. Looks like it's not released released yet but it's on our ftp if you want to give it a try.

ftp://ftp.gfi.com/backup2009home.exe

5/5/2009 9:06:22 PM

so most things I've seen posted in this thread are pretty shit ideas for company backup. at MINIMUM, I'd have a script on what I presume is a windows machine that calls winscp on the command line which can do directory synchronization. overseas I'd have a unix box that you can scp to and then just setup large keys and keypair auth. Doesn't get much more secure unless you do this over a vpn, in which case everything posted is mute and ftp is "fine."

[Edited on May 5, 2009 at 9:36 PM. Reason : everything suggested here is free and easy to setup]

5/5/2009 9:35:56 PM

Quote :

"overseas I'd have a unix box that you can scp to and then just setup large keys and keypair auth"

Quote :

"(nonsensitive data)"

and not trolling, but fyi: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=mute+vs+moot

5/5/2009 10:30:24 PM

non-sensitive, ok sure. you still dont want a script with the plain text auth credentials to your backup box in it, nor do you want a backup server with an anonymous account

good call on moot vs mute, though I honestly typed both words a couple times trying to figure out if moot was even a word or a coloquial misspelling

5/5/2009 10:48:48 PM

so it's safe to say that moot won the game?

5/6/2009 1:02:00 AM

Quote :

"if you want a script...and the data isn't sensitive, then what i posted should be sufficient."

the script it pro and im going to use it. thanks.

I rather not install anything else on the server.

5/6/2009 5:58:02 AM

I personally install OpenSSH/SFTP on all my lab boxes so I can easily get crap on and off it.
http://pigtail.net/LRP/printsrv/cygwin-sshd.html

Longer-term, I agree with the other folks on here that a more robust / secure solution should be considered. If the backup does not successfully FTP that night, are you notified by email? What's the business risk / impact if it doesn't complete (is it a "nice-to-have" or a "must-have" backup)? Plenty of alternative solutions out there. Short-term, I think this thread has covered it.

5/6/2009 7:07:52 AM

I personally like freeftpd. Really easy to use and great unless you are trying to push backups over 3gb size.

5/6/2009 8:55:25 PM

just to update i have switched from that windows FTP script to a SSH script.

If there was a hiccup in the internet during the FTP upload the file would just stop and be corrupt. my SSh client will autoresume where it left off if it gets disconnected by the peer.

6/12/2009 8:58:50 AM