Thanks Ryan - thanks for your insight into how Outlook works. I can't
keep too much data on the Exchange server as the space is limited and
I don't always have access to it when travelling. For this reason I
keep local copies which are stored in pst files. I have organised my
pst files so that I have a current and a number of old archives.
Originally I did this as I was hoping that Outlook would not modify
those archives that haven't changed. Maybe the question isn't how to
back up pst file but how to organise your emails? Anyway, I will try
the --inplace option but cold you explain what you mean by "VSS
snapshots" please?
Cheers
Michael
On 16 Dec 2008, at 23:02, Ryan Malayter wrote:
On Tue, Dec 16, 2008 at 1:34 PM, MW <rs...@urmel.demon.co.uk> wrote:
Hi - I'm backing up a Windows client which has a number of Outlook
mail
archives (pst files) and annoyingly whenever you open Outlook it
updates the
modification dates of all pst files - even if you don't change any
of the
emails contained in the archive.
What's the best way of backing up these files without having them
fill up my
backup disk with mostly identical copies of these files. I guess I
could use
the --checksum option or is there a better way?
BTW, I'm using rsync 3.0.4 on a Mac OS X (Leopard) machine and the
Windows
client is running XPW
When Outlook opens a PST file read-write, its content actually does
change, even if no email is received. Reasons: calendar reminder
status changes, read status changes, search index updates, and a bunch
of other stuff. A PST is essentially a big database file with a bunch
of different internal tables and indexes.
So these files are not actaully exact duplicates. If you don't want to
store all the files, you can use --only-write-batch=FILE and its
associated options to store only the "delta" of each successive file.
Periodically, you will have to do a full update of the file though.
This can be a brittle solution in my experience, especially if the
chain 'o' files gets somehow munged.
If your outlook client is connected to a Microsoft Exchange server,
stop using PST files right now. Keep all your data on the Exchange
server itself, which is the intended design.
http://www.google.com/search?q=why+pst%3Dbad
If your Outlook is connected to a POP server, and the PSTs are your
only option, then you can use the rsync batch method. A better choice
might be continuously updating the file using --inplace, and then
using Time Machine (or whatever other snapshot solution) on the Mac
side to keep different versions of the PST. We do this with large
database files: rsync with "--inplace" and use VSS snapshots on the
Windows server target.
--
RPM
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