[TriLUG] noob backup options?

[Matthew West]

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When I backup my boxen, I usually make a tarball of my /home, /etc and
on servers, my apache root. I save all of these on an external hard
drive. I'm sure there are better ways of doing this, but the tarball
method is very simple and it works. I'm sure you could even make a
script that makes the tarball and transfers it to an external hard drive.

Matt West


Steve Litt wrote:
> On Sunday 07 October 2007 13:47, Kevin Hunter wrote:
>> Hullo List,
>>
>> I'm excited that I've finally convinced my father that he would be
>> better served by his computer if it were running Linux.  I feel that
>> most distros are now to the point of usability, even for him.  I've got
>> all of his software needs covered.  What I am not yet able to help with
>> is a backup solution.  Granted he has no backup solution now, but he's
>> asked for one in this next iteration.
>>
>> My problem is that I've never had to worry about backing up my data so
>> I'm not sure how to council/help him.  What are some of my options at
>> this point?  My constraint is money (as always, right?), at about $100
>> for the entire backup system.
>>
>> I was initially thinking that I'd mdadm his system with a new drive, but
>> now I'm wondering if he wouldn't be well served by having a revision
>> system set up as well.  Something like having an SVN repository on
>> another drive.  That's annoying for him because then he'd have .svn/
>> directories all over the place.  (Which actually, since he'll *never*
>> use the cmdline, wouldn't be such a big deal, eh?)
>>
>> Any thoughts to get me started?
>>
>> Thanks in advance,
> 
> Here's what I do:
> 
> http://www.troubleshooters.cxm/lpm/200609/200609.htm
> 
> Here's the original source of this information:
> 
> http://www.sanitarium.net/golug/rsync_backups.html
> 
> Basically, I rsync back up the computer to the hard drive on another box, so 
> in your case back up your Dad's computer to your computer, assuming you both 
> live in the same house. Then, at your leasure, back up the rsync backup to 
> DVD. The Rsync backup keeps versions so you can go back to a given date.
> 
> HTH
> 
> SteveT
> 
> Steve Litt
> Author: Universal Troubleshooting Process books and courseware
> http://www.troubleshooters.com/
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