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I've the need to setup a differential backup process from a range of remote HP-UXes to a central RHEL5 server.
I'd happily go with rsync, problem is,
stock HP-UX 11.11 has no built-in rsync and I don't have permissions to install any software on the remote stock HP-UXes.
How should I approach this?

HP-UX provides:
fbackup (HP-UX exclusive)
cpio (available in RHEL5, allows backing up only the files which changed, but always grabs the totality of the file) 

ssh remote_user@remote_host 'find /u01/engine/logs/ -type f -name "*.log" | cpio -o | gzip -' | cpio gunzip - | -idmv

Those solutions don't really answer my incremental (bandwidth efficiency) problem do they?

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cpio sounds like your best bet really. Can you configure log rotation to match your backup schedule? Just grab the new files each backup.. – Chris S♦ Mar 4 '11 at 15:23
Thanks Chris. Unfortunately I have no authorization to change any behavior whatsoever in the remote hosts. – Joao Figueiredo Mar 7 '11 at 9:14

2 Answers

up vote 1 down vote accepted

The cpio approach certainly solves one aspect of the bandwidth efficiency issue - not sending files that haven't changed.

You don't mention what type of files you're dealing with, but unless it's huge files that change (eg database files), you're probably not talking about a huge difference.

As a side note, you can install rsync with a different root if you have permissions to install software under a user's home directory.

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I'm talking about 20Mb files(autorotated about each 2 days), a dozen per host, about 30 hosts. The incremental part is crucial as we'd have the need to grab the differences each 3min. Thanks for the help guys, I've ended up looking into an unprivileged rsync install. – Joao Figueiredo Mar 7 '11 at 9:09
up vote 1 down vote

Just a note in the event you can install rsync....for HP/UX you can find the verious version from the Porting Site:

 http://hpux.connect.org.uk/hppd/hpux/Networking/Admin/rsync-3.0.7/

I believe with some options magic you should be able to install the appropriate rsync package in a non-priv'd user directory. Afterall, rsync does not need special privs to run.

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I had already looked up those files, the turning point was my director telling me we could make an exception if the install would be made in an unprivileged user. Thanks for the details ! I'd vote in the answers if I could.. – Joao Figueiredo Mar 7 '11 at 9:11
rsync for HP-UX depot is composed by a single executable file and several unuseful other file( for instance SAM). Extract the depot(is a tar file) and copy the rsync executable in the server. – NoNoNo Jan 25 '12 at 16:37

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