[p4] Perforce Backup question

[Shawn Hladky]

We've been robocopying the archive files for every night for 3 years w/ no
issues.

On 1/18/07, Greg Whitfield <g.whitfield at computer.org> wrote:
>
> I set up a Robocopy based instant backup system at my previous company
> about
> 18 months ago. It's worked flawlessly every night since. Famous last words
> :)
>
> Once the copy is done, the backup server kicks off a full integrity check,
> so issues with file corruption would quickly become apparent.
>
> But it's worth pointing out that I only direct robocopy to the depots
> files,
> not the P4ROOT folder. By default each depot gets stored in a folder under
> P4ROOT. I made the backup easier to maintain simply by using the Map field
> of "p4 depot" to push this down a level. It saves me modifying the backup
> script every time a new depot is created.
>
> Greg
> ~~~~
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: perforce-user-bounces at perforce.com
> [mailto:perforce-user-bounces at perforce.com] On Behalf Of Nau, Mike
> Sent: 18 January 2007 04:55
> To: perforce-user at perforce.com
> Cc: G2345C
> Subject: Re: [p4] Perforce Backup question
>
> A word of caution about robocopy... I was exploring it's use as part of a
> warm backup strategy. I attached a snippet of an exchange I had with
> Perforce Support regarding it's use for replicating P4ROOT. We weren't
> able
> to guarantee corruption of our depot files would not occur in the rare
> occasion when robocopy was accessing a file at the exact time perforce was
> updating it.
>
> Note this is only a potential issue if your running robocopy against your
> versioned files while your server is running.
>
> -Mike
>
> ============================================================
>
> Robocopy's file sharing strategy seems to be undocumented and as such I
> can
> not responsibly say anything regarding robocopy and Perforce, other than
> as
> we discussed; If Perforce has to compete for locks on it's core resources
> the result can be crash and corruption.
>
> With the above noted, I found a thread on the pcreview site regarding
> robocopy in a similar application.  I can not attest for it's accuracy,
> but
> it is good food for thought.
>
> http://www.pcreview.co.uk/forums/thread-1477979.php
>
> I hope that helps and as always if you have any further questions, or
> concerns please let us know.
>
> =============================================================
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: perforce-user-bounces at perforce.com
> [mailto:perforce-user-bounces at perforce.com] On Behalf Of Jamison, Shawn
> Sent: Wednesday, January 17, 2007 5:28 PM
> To: G2345C; perforce-user at perforce.com
> Subject: Re: [p4] Perforce Backup question
>
> Try a tool like rsync or robocopy.  They are MUCH faster in copying your
> P4ROOT to a backup location.
> I was using xcopy on one of my 5 servers and it was taking almost 11
> hours.
> I switched to robocopy and I'm down to 1 hour 10 minutes on average.
>
> Your results may differ but it's worth the effort to experiment.
>
>
> -Shawn J>
> Perforce Admin
> Ciena Corp.
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: perforce-user-bounces at perforce.com
> [mailto:perforce-user-bounces at perforce.com] On Behalf Of G2345C
> Sent: Wednesday, January 17, 2007 1:16 PM
> To: perforce-user at perforce.com
> Subject: [p4] Perforce Backup question
>
> Hi all,
> I am trying to reduce the downtime of our back up, so here i have a
> question, What we are doing right now
> is:
> 1/ shut down p4 server
> 2/ make checkpoint and journal p4d -jc
> 3/ copy $P4ROOT to a save place
> 4/ Start Server
>
> The problem is that our depot is too big that step 3
> (copy) is taking too long.  I am thinking of Mirror $P4ROOT, that has the
> following steps:
> 1/ shut down P4 server
> 2/ make checkpoint and journal p4d -jc
> 3/ stop the Mirror
> 4/ Start P4 server
> 5/ Copy the Mirror to a save place
> 6/ Turn the Mirror back on
> Is it doable? and any good or not good about it?
>
> Thanks
>
>
>
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