[Pkg-samba-maint] Bug#473651: Bug#473651: [samba] Add a regular backup of .tdb files

[Steve Langasek]

On Tue, Apr 01, 2008 at 07:28:55AM +0200, Christian Perrier wrote:
> Quoting Gilles Mocellin (gilles.mocellin at free.fr):
> > Package: samba
> > Version: 3.0.28a-1
> > Severity: minor

> > --- Please enter the report below this line. ---
> > I recently had a corrupted /var/lib/samba/winbind_idmap.tdb file.
> > It was not cool to recover.

> > I saw a crontab file for (/etc/cron.daily/samba) which backups the smbpasswd 
> > file.

> > It could also make a tdbbackup of all files in /var/lib/samba 
> > and /var/cache/samba.

> > It's harmless. Can be run online. And really helpfull in case of corruption.

> Well, I agree that losing Winbind's ID mapping database is certainly
> not cool at all. 

> I actually expect every experienced samba admin to backup that file
> and some others (I'd actually recommend backing up the entire
> /var/lib/samba directory) but at least helping the less experienced
> admin could be a good idea. After all, I still remember the days when
> I started using winbind and was ignorant about the importance of ID
> mapping.

> Other maintainers, objections about a daily cron job for winbind to
> backup this file ?

> Any ideas about other files important enough to be copied and waste
> some space in /var/backups ?

Actually yes, I do object because I don't think we should be doing piecemeal
backups in individual packages.  Losing winbind_idmap is bad, but not worse
than losing other databases on the system, and I haven't seen that tdbs are
noticeably more fragile than other database formats that they should require
a separate backup policy from the rest of the system.

But I see that you've already reached the same conclusion on your own, so ok
then. :)

-- 
Steve Langasek                   Give me a lever long enough and a Free OS
Debian Developer                   to set it on, and I can move the world.
Ubuntu Developer                                    http://www.debian.org/
slangasek at ubuntu.com                                     vorlon at debian.org