Backup a repository

First of all let me tell you that we are using Subversion 1.3.0 with
Apache 2.0.52 (we're using http protocol with Subversion) on a Linux
server.

The repository serves three different building machines: a Windows 2003,
a AIX 5.3 and a SunOS 5.6 machines.

At the moment we back up the repository simply with a tar and gzip
procedure. I did some testing and this way seemed to be the most
efficient, not in terms of space and speed.

I am updating some restoring documentation for extreme cases, like a
fire or something major, not something that can simply be fix with
buying a new disk and dump the repository (or something like that). So,
in this scenario we do not require a Subversion server and a building
machine, but we put the restored repository on the same building
machine. This is of course seen as a temporary measure to be up and
running quickly. As a long term solution we, of course, will have a
Subversion server, with the specification as above, and everything will
be brought back to normal. It's worth mentioning that I didn't write
this document and that at the moment of writing I have done little test
on the viability of such a solution.

However, I have just tried to "restore" the repository on my PC to
simulate that scenario, and then using the svn: and file: protocols (of
course I cannot use http as I don't have Apache installed on my PC).

I have started the svnserve as follows (not sure this is correct)

C:\>svnserve -d --listen-port 4444 --listen-host localhost -r c:/data

Then I tried to checkout a working copy as follows

C:\>svn co svn://localhost:4444/<REPO NAME> <WC>

'vn: Unknown FS type 'fsfs

C:\>svn co file://localhost/<REPO FULL PATH> <WC>

svn: Unable to open an ra_local session to URL

svn: Unable to open repository 'file://localhost/<REPO FULL PATH>'

'vn: Unknown FS type 'fsfs

Did I do something wrong? Or is it that for some Unix/Windows
incompatibility I can't simply untar a Unix repository on a Windows
machine? Is it maybe that I had to untar it with some special option (I
simply used WinZip)?

I know that a solution would be to dump the repository, tar and zip it,
and back it up, so I can load into the new repository on Windows without
problems (I think), but I am trying first to work with what I've got, if
you know what I mean.

Thanks

Giulio

-------------------

Giulio Troccoli

Technical Consultant

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Received on Thu Apr 19 15:43:17 2007