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I'm trying to backup a Linux Server from a Windows 7 Laptop. The Problem I'm facing is that backup solutions for Windows do not recognize Linux symbolic links. The backup clients just follow the symlink and copy it as it was a directory or file and I end up with massiv redundancy and oversized backups. I need the backup client to copy the symlinks as symlinks or skip them.

I installed cygwin to get access to rsync but I couldn't get a backup process running to save data from remote. I have the feeling that the portation of rsync from Linux to Windows via cygwin makes it very difficult to command it the right way.

There must be an easyer way to get that Backup done? Or is rsync the way to go?

Update

I finally went with Cygwin rsync and wrote a shell script to do the job.

The biggest problem was setting up the SSH infrastructure for both Windows and Cygwin and bringing them together. I found a nice Script called ssh-pageant which helped me merge them.

Another problem were the differences between native Bash scripting and Cygwin Bash scripting. But once you have the knack of it, you'll be fine.

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  • Did you try to follow to use windows_rsync without cygwin, or Windows Backup Agent or the rsync Windows Integration? rsync command line can be not so friendly at a first sight, but really cosy after you rule on its syntax.
    – Hastur
    Commented Apr 21, 2015 at 13:05
  • I like the Idea of Cygwin, to create a small linux environment inside Windows. So I went this way.
    – Rotareti
    Commented Apr 22, 2015 at 14:17

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You have so many possibilities... and this number will grow with time.

  • rsync and tar are two consolidated old style ways to do backup. You can do remotely your tar file(s), and backup it (them) locally. You can do even an incremental backup.
    Moreover and more cosy, it exists a wide number of GUI based on them and on SSH. Some opensources too.

  • You can search for a cross-platform tool. If cross platform it is supposed to naturally deal with symbolic links. Get a look e.g. here

  • You can search for a remote backup utility on internet. Here the Open Source Storage: 49 Tools for Backup and Recovery dated 2014 but still with more then needed links. Amanda (the first of the list in alphabetic order) seems to use tar and so to understand symbolic links.

  • An exotic overkill can be a virtual machine with a minimal Linux installation with rsync and ssh packages and you will have your local emulated machine with real Linux tools... (and then you can use again rsync :) ).

  • From rsync.net they propose to use windows rsync , or Windows Backup Agent or the rsync Windows Integration

  • Among the others you can try use winscp, I've to check if it works properly with symbolic link as it seems to me.

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