[Box Backup] Continuous backup only when idle

[Yang Zhang]

On Thu, May 5, 2011 at 1:53 PM, Chris Wilson <chris at qwirx.com> wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> On Thu, 5 May 2011, Peter Jalajas, GigaLock Backup Services wrote:
>
>> Yes, I have had the same problem.  It appears to me that Box Backup
>> fills my meager outbound DSL bandwidth, which apparently interferes
>> with my inbound bandwidth, making our systems run slow.
>
> Yang Zhang, is it your Internet connection that is slowing down, or the host
> running bbackupd?

It's the host load, though I can imagine that being a problem as well
for those on slower upstream connections (as in Peter's case).

>
>> I've tried trickle and wondershaper; wondershaper worked a little better.
>>  Within the past week, I've tried setting AutomaticBackup = no and then set
>> up a late night cronjob with
>>
>> 43 2 * * * nice /usr/local/sbin/bbackupctl sync-and-wait
>>
>> Seems to be working well enough so far.
>
> Some other options might be:
>
> 1. Setting the new MaxUploadRate setting to some value (in bytes per second)
> around half your upload bandwidth, or lower if you want to reduce CPU usage
> on the client;
>
> 2. Reducing MaximumDiffingTime to reduce the amount of time that bbackupd
> spends performing heavy disk I/O;

Does this mean that boxbackup won't be able to diff/backup large files
(even when I'm not using my computer)?

>
> 3. Using a SyncAllowScript to prevent backups from starting during your peak
> hours.

This sounds promising - any ideas on how to whip up a script that
detects whether I'm actively using my computer (either via X or ssh)?

>
> Cheers, Chris.
> --
> _____ __     _
> \  __/ / ,__(_)_  | Chris Wilson <chris+sig at qwirx.com> Cambs UK |
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-- 
Yang Zhang
http://yz.mit.edu/