[backup method] tar or dump for backups? (Summary)
I posted about this and received no replies. I thought I'd report back
about what I wound up doing...
> I have a spare 1 GB disk at work which I could use to backup my /home
> partition (which consists of 1 GB amidst a 4.3 GB disk).
>
> (If I decide I can tolerate the 1GB-disk's whining; it's surprising how
> annoying the sound of the old disk is compared to my new Seagate
> Barracuda.)
I'm using scsi-idle to spin the disk down when not needed, so I don't
hear it at all since the backups run at night!
> I'm accustomed to using tar. I thought I'd learn about incremental tar
> archives and:
>
> o erase the disk every Friday evening and make a new tar file
> on the disk.
> o create an incremental tar file from Monday to Thursday evenings.
>
> Is this wise? Or should I use dump/restore which I know nothing about?
I decided to go with a known quantity and use tar.
> Part of the protection I want is from myself:
> If I accidentally delete a file on Monday and it takes me until
> Thursday to realise that, I'd like the file to still exist on the backup.
I added a few /etc/crontab entries to run at 2 AM:
00 2 * * 6 root /root/backup-weekly
00 2 * * 2 root /root/backup-weekdays 1-tuesday
00 2 * * 3 root /root/backup-weekdays 2-wednesday
00 2 * * 4 root /root/backup-weekdays 3-thurday
00 2 * * 5 root /root/backup-weekdays 4-friday
and created simple scripts that run at night and email me results:
/root/backup-weekly:
#! /bin/sh
# Weekly backup
mount -t ext2 /dev/sdb2 /backup
rm -f /backup/weekly/*
/usr/bin/dpkg --get-selections > /backup/weekly/debian.selections
tar -c -f /backup/weekly/etc.tar /etc 1> /dev/null 2> /dev/null
tar -c -f /backup/weekly/root.tar /root 1> /dev/null 2> /dev/null
tar -c -f /backup/weekly/home.tar -g /backup/weekly/home.snapshot /home/ 1> /dev/null 2> /dev/null
df /dev/sdb2 | mail rhogee
umount /backup
/root/backup-weekdays:
#! /bin/sh
# Weekday backup job -- Monday -> Thurdsy
# Usage: backup-weekday 1-monday
#
mount -t ext2 /dev/sdb2 /backup
tar -cvf /backup/weekly/home-$1.tar -g /backup/weekly/home.snapshot /home/ 1> /tmp/backup-log 2> /tmp/backup-errors
if ( test -f /tmp/backup-log ) then
mail -s "backup log -- `date`" rhogee < /tmp/backup-log
else
echo "No backup log file!" | mail rhogee
fi;
if ( test -f /tmp/backup-errors ) then
mail -s "backup errors ! -- `date`" rhogee < /tmp/backup-errors
fi;
df /dev/sdb2 | mail rhogee
umount /backup
My backup partition looks like this today:
bash-2.00# ls -l /backup/weekly/
total 576964
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 6210 Aug 9 02:00 debian.selections
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1832960 Aug 9 02:00 etc.tar
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 9134080 Aug 12 02:01 home-1-tuesday.tar
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 47842 Aug 12 02:01 home.snapshot
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 575283200 Aug 9 02:06 home.tar
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2191360 Aug 9 02:00 root.tar
Pretty cool!
--
Peter Galbraith, research scientist <galbraith@mixing.qc.dfo.ca>
Maurice-Lamontagne Institute, Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada
P.O. Box 1000, Mont-Joli Qc, G5H 3Z4 Canada 418-775-0852 - FAX 418-775-0546
--
TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS MAILING LIST: e-mail the word "unsubscribe" to
debian-user-request@lists.debian.org .
Trouble? e-mail to templin@bucknell.edu .
Reply to: