On Sunday 17 February 2002 10:29 am, you wrote:
Wow, thanks for a good introduction. I currently do not use the network
capabilities of linux as yet and have only a local machine. I like the idea
of doing incremental backups and would like to use the cron scheduler to
perform them. I need a safe way to test a backup because I used the "dump"
program and it detroyed the RedHat filesystem. I probably only need to make
a monthly backup of system files and possibly a daily or weekly backup of the
home directory. Is there a GUI interface for Amanda backup?
Andy
> 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... : )
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