[Discuss] Backup linux desktops/workstations

[gaf at blu.org (Jerry Feldman)]

On 06/15/2012 09:01 AM, Edward Ned Harvey wrote:
>> From: discuss-bounces+blu=nedharvey.com at blu.org [mailto:discuss-
>> bounces+blu=nedharvey.com at blu.org] On Behalf Of Tom Metro
>>
>>> Must be able to backup the whole system. Including the OS, and all
>>> the customizations...
>> Do you really want to be doing that level of backup on a daily basis?
> Yes, I'm trying to find a solution that makes linux as good as windows and
> mac.
>
>
I've never had a Mac, but from What I recall, the onsite backup programs
are expensive and suck. The offsite backups like Mozy and Carbonite (If
you like Kim Kommando) seem to be pretty nice.
I've found rsnapshop to be very, very reliable bot at work running on an
ARM-based WD MyBook backing up a ReadyNAS. Rsnapshot as I mentioned
before is very configurable, with includes, excludes, logs and alerts. I
have a script I run every morning to check the status of the backups.
Mine takes several hours. The other thing is that unlike traditional
backups you are always doing the equivalent of a full backup, but
because of the rsync -link-dest, it only copies those files that have
changed, and hard links the files that have not. So, if you need to
restore a single file from last Tuesday, it is there (assuming you have
dailies configured), or an entire file system (which I have done
successfully when I upgraded to Fedora 16 and did a clean install). One
real advantage Linux and Unix have is that there are no unmovable files
except for the Grub stage 2. On my system /home is where everything
important is. I can always rebuild Linux. Another advantage of Linux and
Unix file systems is that a file is a number (essentially an element of
an array called inode, although implemented more efficiently today). A
file directory entry is nothing more than a name, and the inode number.
That is why you can refer to the same file with different names or the
same name in different directories. (a hard link). If you remove a file
all that command does is to (1) remove the file name entry from the
directory and decrement the use count. in the inode. The file is not
physically removed until the use count goes to zero. That is why if you
are trying to reclaim space by deleting a file that is currently open
(such as wtmp) you will not reclaim space because a file-open increments
the use count.

-- 
Jerry Feldman <gaf at blu.org>
Boston Linux and Unix
PGP key id:3BC1EB90 
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