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There are different approaches on this.
You can backup everything so that you can recreate your computer basically
from scratch. It takes longer and requires more tape space. Or you only
backup files that change. I.e config and data files.
Backup is done to recover from two things. Either data entry or basically
hard disk failure. If you need to recover some data like an invoice that was
deleted you find it on the backup and voila! If you disk crash then you have
to recreate it.
The problem you run into is different versions of software. Lets say you buy
RH 7.2 and install it today. Two months from now you have made an upgrade to
your binaries. So you have the original versions of the CD and the newer one
on the backup. (You may be forced to do upgrades of binaries due to security
issues.)
Then you have two ways of backing up. Only incremental backup, i.e. changed
files, or all. This could be a huge factor if you have a LOT of data but only
few files change and you don't have the time to be down while it backs up all
you data. I tend to backup all data and config files.
There's a factor when you backup live data. (I.e. in use.) You could backup
incomplete transactions. I.e. partial save of the new/modified data. Maybe
you rather have that than nothing. (This could happen when your data is
spread across several files, as is often the case with SQL.)
Which brings us to the rotation of backup media.
Do you need to keep a going record for example for the last year? Is it worth
the media and time/space to keep a backup every week or month so that you can
go back to a previous date?
At a minimum you have two tapes you cycle through. Two because if the backup
fails before it's done, you have no backup.
I tend to keep a week regardless. And I seldom backup binaries unless I do
something too custom to easily recreate. Walk through dummy backup restore
and see what you run into. (Preferably on a different but similar system.)
Look at what it takes for you to create a new system to restore to. One
rebuilds a computer in about 30 min. Add another 15 to get the latest
binaries. Then restore f.ex. your data and you are back in business.
Of course now we have another option too, CD's. You can burn to CD/W or
CD/RW. There are different conditions that may exist for you that adds yet
another twist to the story. But the above should give you enough to get you
through. As usual I'm happy to give my views and considerations.
Steve
On Sunday 17 February 2002 07:31, you wrote:
> Josh and Steve, I appreciate the suggestions. I will look into the Amanda
> interface. I basically want to back up the RH 7.2 root and home partitions
> (approx 4 GB) on a separate area of the hard drive (I have only one 40GB
> drive) most of which is devoted to Linux but shares space with Win98se.
> What file directories or partitions should I back up? i.e. /usr, /home,
> everything?
>
> Andy W.
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "steve" <steve@itcom.net>
> To: <slug@nks.net>
> Sent: Saturday, February 16, 2002 8:18 PM
> Subject: Re: [SLUG] Re: backup of linux files
>
> > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> >
> > I use tar with gz option to backup some 10G just fine.
> >
> > On Saturday 16 February 2002 18:58, you wrote:
> > > Anyone familiar with the use of "dump" and "restore" to backup files.
> > > I tried the man page for these and tried "dump" on my home partition
> > > directory and ended up corrupting the filesystem. Are there
>
> alternatives
>
> > > to the dump and restore program.
> > >
> > > Thanks, Andy W.
> >
> > - --
> >
> > Steve
> >
> > _______________________________________________________
> > No, I don't Yahoo, I have a real e-mail account... : )
- --
Steve
_______________________________________________________
No, I don't Yahoo, I have a real e-mail account... : )
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