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Re: Live Fille System Backup



On Fri, May 5, 2017 at 1:17 AM, Sergei G <sergeig.public@gmail.com> wrote:
> I would like a backup tool that does not bring a million dependencies with
> MBs of files.  Something that works on server without X Windows and can send
> backup to an externally attached USB drive.  Nothing fancy.   No network
> infrastructure.  Incremental backups would be greatly appreciated.  Ability
> to pipe to a compression program is a plus, just like I did with dump.
> [...]
> Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

You won't like my solution, and it doesn't work with your current
setup because it requires a specific file system: btrfs[1]. I'm
posting it here for two reasons:
 1) You might consider using btrfs on new installs
 2) Someone else may search and find the thread

After switching to btrfs I can now take instant snapshots of selected
filesystems, transfer these to remote servers for backup, and most
important: btrfs can track the *exact difference* between two
snapshots taken over time, and only transfer the changes. All of this
is very quick, because the filesystem already knows exactly what
changed: Permission bits, file sizes, deleted files, changed data,
whatever, all is already kept in a log. It also means that nothing
will be missed, for example ACL bits etc.

The delta is just a simple stream of data that can be compressed if
necessary. Typically it is transmitted to a backup server where it is
"replayed" so that you have a full clone of the original system.[2]

In debian I use the little tool, btrbk[3], to automate all of this.
You can simply do it manually if you want.

[1] https://btrfs.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/Main_Page
[2] https://btrfs.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/Incremental_Backup
[3] https://github.com/digint/btrbk


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