Déjà Dup

Questions - GVFS, Backup Hold Time, etc.

Asked by JaSauders

Hey there! Got a couple questions regarding Deja Dup, based entirely on curiosity.

For one, is .gvfs excluded by default? Or would I have to add that to the exclude list within the Deja Dup settings? I've had pretty bad experiences with using rsync in the command line if I didn't exclude .gvfs within the command.

I understand Deja Dup keeps old backups until the space gets low. But how exactly does it do the number crunch to come to that conclusion? The reason I ask is I have my desktop system pushing data to my file server, but my file server is also running ZoneMinder (video surveillance software). As a result, there's quite a lot of data being written to the server. I want to make sure that my mirrored array of 500GB drives aren't going to restrict the backups from happening.

For example, let's say I have 490GB on the server, but the backup wants to push 20GB. At that point does it delete older backups?

To throw another curve ball out there, let's say there's 490GB on the server, but ZoneMinder is writing more video feed to the drives and needs more than 10GB. With Deja Dup not running at the time, is it still intelligent enough to dispose of the older backups to free up space? Or is Deja Dup only "self aware" of disk space when the program itself is actually running?

Thanks for any help!

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Michael Terry
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Best Michael Terry (mterry) said : 		#1

For your .gvfs question, yes, .gvfs is excluded by default. You can see the list of always-excluded files in the help documentation (open your backup settings, click Help, go to the section on preferences).

Regarding the deletion of older backups, Deja Dup will start deleting backups as long as it leaves at least one full backup and until it has enough space to back up everything assuming no compression. (i.e. if you have 20G of data to back up, it will try to make room for 20G, even though after compressing the delta, it will likely be smaller)

Deja Dup only makes the deletion calculation when it is starting a backup. So it wouldn't know to make room for more video feed data on the fly.

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JaSauders (jasauders) said : 		#2

Michael,

Thank you for your quick response. This information helps curb my curiosity in regard to wanting to know how things work, even if their complexity is a bit above my level of understanding. I was not aware that there was that much detail in the help section, so that's another great tip to know. Your time is appreciated - thanks again!

-J

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JaSauders (jasauders) said : 		#3

Thanks Michael Terry, that solved my question.