Backup tools

[William_in_Kanata]

We are reviewing our backup procedures, and I am looking for suggestions for a suitable tool.

WE have six machines on our network, mixture of Windows and Linux. We would like to be able to backup all of them from a central point. Ideally, we would like to be able schedule a full backup at regular, but fairly long (say monthly) intervals, with daily incremental between. I have had passing experience with amanda (used at a site where I worked, but I was not responsible for it). It seemed to work OK, but on the two occasions when I needed to recover files, it was a very lengthly process, and in one case the latest version could not be recovered.

So what are you using? How easy is it to set up? Is recovery of a single file to its original location reasonably straight forward and quick?

On a related issue, what are using as a backup medium? We have been using tape, but our drive is old, and needs to be replaced. I have heard reports that DVD can be unstable. Again, any comments?

Thanks for your time.

[josefko]

Re: Backup tools

I use rsync for backup to an external drive and to another computer. Backup is still a tree of folders so it is easy to recover.
Both examples are synchronization. It means that it deletes files in destination, when they do not exist in source. Only updated files are sent. First example is a backup of the whole linux partition and it lasts usually about 10 minutes.

#!/bin/bash
sudo rsync -auR --stats --delete --exclude-from=kubuntu_exclude / /media/passport/josefko

Second example uses ssh for backup of some folders to another computer

#!/bin/bash
rsync -au --delete /home/ko/Mail -e ssh josefko@192.168.0.107:/home/josefko

[wizard10000]

Re: Backup tools

I do the same thing but don't remove files that have been removed on the source - I go in and clean up the backup drive once in awhile. Having rsync keep a copy of a file I shouldn't have deleted has saved my bacon a couple of times.

I do it this way - this script runs as a nightly cron job:

#/bin/bash

rsync -rltEmqu --exclude-from=/home/wizard/.rsync/exclude /home/wizard /media/ARCHIVE/home
rsync -rltEmqu /etc /media/ARCHIVE

The exclude file looks like this -

temp/
Desktop/
.gvfs/
Downloads/

Directory names have to have a trailing slash in an exclude file, otherwise rsync thinks they're just files.

[josefko]

Re: Backup tools

I don't remove files that have been removed on the source

That's the difference between backup and synchronization. Both have pros and cons. The best programs for backup do synchronization and save files deleted from source apart. One of them is rdiff-backup in repository.

rdiff-backup backs up one directory to another, possibly over a network. The target directory ends up a copy of the source directory, but extra reverse diffs are stored in a special subdirectory of that target directory, so you can still recover files lost some time ago. The idea is to combine the best features of a mirror and an incremental backup. rdiff-backup also preserves subdirectories, hard links, dev files, permissions, uid/gid ownership, modification times, extended attributes, acls, and resource forks.

Also, rdiff-backup can operate in a bandwidth efficient manner over a pipe, like rsync. Thus you can use rdiff-backup and ssh to securely back a hard drive up to a remote location, and only the differences will be transmitted. Finally, rdiff-backup is easy to use and settings have sensible defaults.

[Guest]

Re: Backup tools

Few days ago there was a backup application review in the Kubuntu devel. The link to the review: https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ku...ay/005235.html