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