Re: Preferred Backup Method?
On Tue, Dec 04, 2007 at 04:09:12PM -0500, Michael Pobega wrote:
> What is d-u's preferred method of backups? Now that I'm running servers
> on my system (Apache, MySQL, SSH, etc.) I need to find a good method of
> backing up, because no matter how much security someone has things may
> still go wrong.
>
> So list your preferred methods of creating/restoring backups and the
> pros and cons. Thanks!
We need some info:
size of backup set (how much data)
Location (physical/virtual) of backup sets, e.g. to CD-Rs, tape, hard
drive in same box, dedicated backup server's hard drive, external hard
drive, USB stick.
In general, I do a few things:
frequent backup to a raid1-protected pair in the same box.
less frequent rsyc of that to the drive on another debian box
less frequent burn to CD-R
less frequent burn to tiny CD-R to fit in the Bank's Safety Deposit Box.
Before I go away anywhere (i.e. out of town), I copy the most important
of the backup to a 4 GB USB stick.
This means that I have a separate directory called "essential_backup"
with a symlink in each user's home directory. They are to place a
symlink of any critical data in that directory. That directory is
tarred up (following the symlinks) very frequently indeed and propogated
to the other box immediatly.
The regular stuff is tarred up (tgz) and split to 650 MB size e.g.
backup.tgz.aa to fit on CD-Rs.
If security of the backups is required (other than physical security of
the media), then I use openssl to encrypt it with an unencrypted README
file, with the commands used to encrypt and decrypt (minus the actual
password), included on each backup media.
So, to answer your question re software: tar, gunzip, split, cat (to
rejoin splits), openssl, K3B, rsync, and mc.
Doug.
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