Hardening PBA, the network backup tool

Trying to harden backup tools is hard. The reason is that there are so many possible configurations that may be used by the customer that it’s impossible to test them all.

We have been trying to chase down one particular issue, called “error 22”, which happens occasionally when trying to back up NTFS disks.

PBA Backups

One thing we were thinking it could be happening is that the NTFS disk subject to the backup has not been shut down properly. Being a journalling file system, this is ok, however, the tool we use in PBA for backing up NTFS partitions (ntfsclone), cannot handle disks improperly shutdown.

As usual, please only test (recovery of) PBA backups with e.g. alternate disks, keeping the original safe (i.e. not with real data). And report back, including if you have positive experiences, to build up confidence in the tool. We have no reports of failures so far, but you never know.

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