how well does it work with dabases, like MySQL, PostgresSQL and Oracle?
If the affa configuration for the remote host (the source) contains 'SMEserver' not equal to 'no', then affa runs 'signal-event pre-backup' on the source server. On a SME box this includes a dump of the mysql databases. If you're also using PostgresSQL & Oracle you'll need to generate a custom process to dump the databases before backup (I think). If the 'source' is a SME server, you could customize the 'pre-backup' event; if the 'source' is non-SME you can create scripts to be run before & after the backup which can (using ssh) execute commands on the 'source'. Check the manual for preJobCommand and postJobCommand, and look at the sample scripts in /usr/lib/affa
Rsync timed out for some reason and (should) return exitcode 30, but Affa saw something non-numeric. Can you read the exitstatus from the log?
Error: rsync failed with status 255
the df command failed for the filessystem where the job archives are located
Possibly a timeout caused by trying to use lame USB 1.1?
Michael - I think I've been fighting two or three separate issues - one related to large files (>2GB) accessed using smbfs on the 'source' server, one related to slow backup disk access (USB 1.1) on my local backup device, and one related to "successfully" backing up an empty mount-point...
I finally found the "lfs" option for "mount -t smbfs" which provides "large file support" - this let me complete two manual 'rsync' runs with no problems. I later changed the mount command on the source server to use "mount -t cifs", which seems to a) not have problems with large files and b) allow the backup to run faster.
I have also installed a USB 2.0 controller in my backup server...
I also, at one point, while playing with 'preJobCommand' and 'postJobCommand' created a successful backup of the empty mount point on the remote host.
Between these three problems, I became very confused about how the rsync --link-dest function worked. In an effort to straighten things out I ran the affa rsync command manually, using the largest (most successful?) local backup as the --link-dest (daily.3) and changing the destination folder (scheduled.0, scheduled.1, daily.0) until I had a) run rsync successfully several times in a row, and b) had several successful local copies... After that I changed the value for 'keepDaily' and ran 'affa --cleanup <job>' to remove the under-sized backups. Now I've re-enabled the affa schedule and will see what happens.