Using Samba

Backups with smbtar

Our final topic in this chapter is the smbtar tool. One common problem with modem PCs is that floppies and even CD-ROMs are often too small to use for backups. However, buying one tape drive per machine would also be silly. Consequently, many sites don’t back up their PCs at all. Instead, they reinstall them using floppy disks and CD-ROMs when they fail.

Thankfully, Samba provides us with another option: you can back up PCs’ data using the smbtar tool. This can be done on a regular basis if you keep user data on your Samba system, or only occasionally, to save the local applications and configuration files and thus make repairs and reinstallations quicker.

To back up PCs from a Unix server, you need to do three things:

1. Ensure that File and Printer Sharing is installed on the PC and is bound to the TCP/IP protocol.

2. Explicitly share a disk on the PC so it can be read from the server.

3. Set up the backup scripts on the server.

We’ll use Windows 95/98 to illustrate the first two steps. Go to the Networking icon in the Control Panel window, and check that File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks is currently listed in the top window, as shown in Figure 8.2.

Figure 8-2. The Networking window

If “File and printer sharing for Microsoft Networks” isn’t installed, you can install it by clicking on the Add button on the Network panel. After pressing it, you will be asked what ...