Re: Question on backups using rsync
On Tuesday 20 December 2005 2:19 pm, Andrew Sackville-West wrote:
> I've always worked with the idea of two different kinds of backups.
>
> 1) a copy of the critical files (accounting, databases, spreadsheets
> etc.) that are needed for day to day operations in the event of
> corruption or accidental deletion and the like. These are just copies,
> in my case, of just a couple of directories. I don't need long term
> storage, just a few days/weeks of copies that I can refer to incase I
> blow something.
>
> 2) a system backup with a snapshot of the entire system. With hours and
> hours of configuration and setup on my boxes, Id like to have
> occaisional "snapshots" of the whole system. Then if I lose a machine
> (hardrive crash, theft, flood whatever) or blow the system up somehow, I
> can recreate the whole thing a-new relatively easily. In this case, the
> actual critical data from above would theoretically already be stored
> and retrievable somewhere (and usable on any system) and therefore,
> these snapshots do not have to be done as frequently. Just whenever a
> major system change happens, or every couple months to include small
> incremental system creep.
My needs/approach is similar to yours.
What I am now doing is I have a MondoRescue DVD containing / (with the
exception of /home as that changes too often) to allow for a bare-metal
restore; then I have an rsync of everything except /proc/ /tmp/ /mnt/ /sys/
and /dev/ (which is handled by udev anyway).
(Mondo takes about five hours to backup/verify about 6GB of data using normal
compression, rsync took about five hours to do inital sync on 93GB.)
Now in theory, (I have done the bare-metal restore using mondorescue before...
so I /know/ that works) the procedure would be restore the system to a working
state via mondo, log in as root, rsync everything back from rsync mirror. Now if I
understand everything correctly that would put me current as of the rsync time.
Please feel free to correct me if I am wrong <g>.
--
"Last I checked, it wasn't the power cord for the Clue Generator that
was sticking up your arse." - John Novak, rasfwrj
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