Backup image

[snappwrench]

Hello all, I know there is a lot on this subject but there doesn't seem to be much info on the specifics so here we go. I'm trying to find a program to backup my system in it's current state including config files ect. I've been looking into Remastersys as it claims to do exactly what I'm after but has a limit of 4g. I think I'm a bit over that but was wondering if any of the other programs available in the repos do the same thing? Any suggestions well. Thank you.

[capt-zero]

snappwrench,

I haven't used it much, so I can't tell you a great deal about it; but have you checked out Clonezilla yet. I don't know what it's limit might be. but I did a 7 GB backup of my Windows with it.

capt-zero

[snappwrench]

Yeah I've been looking into that as well. Haven't tried it yet but still looking at the options. Just trying to figure out if any of the more common programs do the same or similar. I will look into it further, thanks for the reply.

[GreyGeek]

You can use tar to back up.

Mount an 8 or 16 GB USB stick and set the following three scripts to use it. The USB stick should be mounted as "/backup", otherwise change the name of the mount in the scripts.
Errors during the process are stored in "/backup/back_errors.txt" and in "/backup/restore_errors.txt"

There are three bash shell scripts.


They can be run manaully or be added to a cron script as appropriate:
backup_all.bsh can be put in the weekly cron
backup_inc.bsh can be put into the daily cron


Consult the cron man pages to learn how to use cron.


The list of directories to back up or restore are on the last line both backup scripts and should be indentical. Adjust them to suit your needs.


They should not include the destination for the tar file, which is "./backup".

The "backup_all.sh" script backs up everything in the indicated directories. The "backup_inc.txt" script backs up all changes since the last incremental backup by comparing the file timestamp with those stored in the snapshot file, "/backup/webserver.snar". (SNapshot ARchive)

The option ‘--listed-incremental’ instructs tar to operate on an incremental archive with additional metadata stored in a standalone file, called a snapshot file. The purpose of this file is to help determine which files have been changed, added or deleted since the last backup, so that the next incremental backup will contain only modified files. The name of the snapshot file is given as an argument to the option:
‘--listed-incremental=file’

backup_all.bsh
***************
#!/bin/bash
bkupdir=/backup
bkupname="Webserver_fullbkup_"$(date +'%Y-%m-%d')
tar --create
--gzip
--sparse
--same-permissions
--file=$bkupdir/$bkupname.tgz
--blocking-factor=256
--directory=/
--label=$bkupname
/boot /etc /home /lib /misc /opt /root /sbin /selinux /usr /var 2> $bkupdir/backup_errors.txt &




backup_inc.bsh
************************
#!/bin/bash
bkupdir=/backup
bkupname="Webserver_incbkup_"$(date +'%Y-%m-%d')
tar --create
--gzip
--sparse
--same-permissions
--file=$bkupdir/$bkupname.tgz
--blocking-factor=256
--directory=/
--label=$bkupname
--listed-incremental=$bkupdir/webserver.snar
/bin /boot /etc /home /lib /misc /opt /root /sbin /selinux /usr /var &




restore_all.bsh
*********************
#!/bin/bash
tar -xzsSpf --numeric-owner %1 2> /backup/restore_errors.txt

Call "restore_all.bsh" with the name of the full or incremental backup file. If you had a full backup on Friday night and discovered your system was defective on Wednesday morning, you'd restore Last Friday's full backup and follow it restoring with Monday and Tuesday's incremental backup.

[vw72]

Remastersys won't make an iso bigger than 4g, but remember that it is heavily compressed so it will actually contain more data than that.

[snappwrench]

yeah the only reason I'm looking at the options is due to the prep that goes into using remastersys and thanks "grey geek" but I don't have a USB drive to use right now but I will save that info for future use. I'll be good on space once I've cleared a few things from my home partition and unistalled a couple programs per info I've read on remastersys's forum but I'm still gonna research this quite a bit more till I actually try this. Really appreciate the replys, thank you.