Am 11.03.2017 um 16:10 schrieb Richard Owlett: > I've been good about telling others that backups are a good idea. Hi, i know i am late to the party. And without knowing any ready made documentation, let me add a few things out of the top of my head: 1. Backups saved my mental health on numerous occassions, even while still on Windows 2. Although i came across tools to automate the process, i have never accepted having to trust anything to be - or not to be - in control of critical data, except for myself 3. An understanding of how to set up a bootable system (be it from backup or new) seems crucial to me, as some understanding of grub + initramfs appears to be extremely useful 4. Linux has every tool necessary on board, a first backup is easy to make using (f.i.) systemrescuecd 5. And logging all the steps done, while doing them, is the first step to a scripted solution 6. Such a log - turning into a script - paired with the corresponding restore - is evolving naturally with time and experience... Here are some lessons, i learned while being involved with backing up: * Different kinds of data need to be considered, according to their turnaround and usefulness (a.k.a. backup cycle interval). I adhere to 3 types today: (os=critical=when needed: on occassion several times a day, regular cycle: almost everything else backing up every 2 weeks currently, and dont care/throw away data, which doesnt stop me from backing it up, but more of the fire and forget kind) * always log the reason/state of the backup, similar to git, as that logfile turns into a valuable resource useable even after years * where to backup to? Initially, i was using the machine to backup for holding the backup, which is a really bad idea. Today, i am using a pluggable external device with several drives configured in a RAID setup. * In order to save space, a COW (copy-on-write) fs turns out to be mega useful. My recommendation being ZFS (at least on the backup devices), as that allows keeping several backups/restore points in one place using incremental backup. Example: OS (uses 4.5 GB) has 20 incremental backups, making up around 16.5 GB = 4.5 + 12 for snapshots in total. * for some strange reason, i switched to imaging lately (using zerofree + compression, loop mount + rsync), and the gain in restore-time is mind-blowing, as a simple dd was enough to restore one entire snap from a OS. BTW: in the meantime, i switched to using ZFS for the real data mountpoints as well * The bash scripts used for backup/restore evolved to 9+6K due to my habit to make lots of asserts/checks as a safety measure before proceeding. That kind of approach may not be useful to everybody, as it is some investment into one self's know-how. But you gain flexibility and creative handling options, like just restoring the exact file(s) of even just comparing the differences. And after having gone through different real world scenarios (hardware failures of different kinds) i know how safe i am! But for those only interested in a ready made solution: You are going to run into a major difficulty sooner or later, that hasnt been foreseen. Hopefully, you'll have 3 Versions ready (original, backup, next-to-last backup) and find some admin worth trusting and able to handle your situation manually. :-) Those are my 2 cents. DdB (reading only the lists digest, thus not replying directly)
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