on Sat, Jan 13, 2001 at 08:06:51PM +0100, Alexander Steinert (stony8@gmx.de) wrote:
> Hi folks,
>
> I'd like to know which programs and strategies you (would) use to backup
> *one* debian box. In one case I have available a CD-Burner as backup
> device and in the other case a 640MB MO drive.
http://kmself.home.netcom.com/Linux/FAQs/backups.html
> Constraint: I don't want a complete backup of all partitions but in
> case of bad luck to install a new debian system and then restore the
> files from the backup. Where (in the file system hierarchy) should i
> draw the line between files restored from a backup and those to be
> restored by a new installation. (I know that I need a special backup
> for my postgres databases.)
Discussed in link.
> I read the manual of afio but it didn't convince me, so I'm considering
> using tar and gzip.
I'd stick to tar.
> To create the whole backup archive first and then split it into pieces
> (volumes) might take too much space, but I have a special partition
> (~800MB) available. To employ split seems not appropriate ("Hey, wait!
> I want to change the medium.") The package description of afio implies
> that compressed tar archives might not be save. Is it safer to
> compress first and archive then? (This would decrease the compression
> rate due to Ziv Lempel, and extracting would be more complicated.) Of
> course it would be nice to be able to restore only
> a certain file.
>
> If somebody has experience with kbackup and kbackup-multibuf
> (espescially with CD-Burners) I would appreciate to hear it.
I prefer tape for whole-system backups. More capacity, relatively
inexpensive. CDs are just too small.
> Is it clever to constrain access to the machine during the backup
> process?
Helpful, possibly. Necessary? No. My last full backup missed two
files, with normal use, out of ten partitions / directories backed up.
> BTW: Why is there a standard user called "backup" who can't
> read all files?
Dunno.
> I'm especially interested in how a complete restore procedure would look
> like (say the hard disc was broken and I bought a new one).
- Replace disk.
- Install base Debian system.
- Recover package list from archive, set selections with:
$ dpkg --set-selections < package.list
- Update system with 'apt-get upgrade'.
- Restore /etc and other partitions from backups.
- Verify.
--
Karsten M. Self <kmself@ix.netcom.com> http://kmself.home.netcom.com/
What part of "Gestalt" don't you understand? There is no K5 cabal
http://gestalt-system.sourceforge.net/ http://www.kuro5hin.org
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