John Cooper wrote:
> Chris Dennis wrote:
>   
>> Hello folks
>>
>> I'm planning to use one or more external USB hard drives to backup a 
>> headless server running Debian.  I'll probably use rsnapshot, with a 
>> script that detects for the presence of the right drive.
>>
>> But how can the server tell the user when it is safe to unplug the 
>> drive?  Or maybe the user should somehow tell the server "I want to 
>> unplug the drive -- stop using it and unmount it".
>>
>> The user's only way of communicating with the server is by email or 
>> possibly via Webmin.
>>
>> Has anyone come up with a cunning plan to deal with this?
>>
>> cheers
>>
>> Chris
>>     
>
> Have a look at this USB suspend script:-
>
> http://elliotli.blogspot.com/2009/01/safely-remove-usb-hard-drive-in-linux.html
>
>
>   
I use autofs for things like usb & firewire drives on our backup server 
(uses rsync).
I've set it up so the drive is unmounted after 30 secs if it's not in 
use so this might help
http://www.autofs.org/
It's also good for things like smb mounts
Brian
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    The views expressed here are my own and not necessarily
 
                the views of Portsmouth College