on Sat, Jan 13, 2001 at 08:06:51PM +0100, Alexander Steinert ([EMAIL 
PROTECTED]) wrote:
> Hi folks,
> 
> I'd like to know which programs and strategies you (would) use to backup
> *one* debian box. In one case I have available a CD-Burner as backup
> device and in the other case a 640MB MO drive.

    http://kmself.home.netcom.com/Linux/FAQs/backups.html

> Constraint: I don't want a complete backup of all partitions but in
> case of bad luck to install a new debian system and then restore the
> files from the backup.  Where (in the file system hierarchy) should i
> draw the line between files restored from a backup and those to be
> restored by a new installation. (I know that I need a special backup
> for my postgres databases.)

Discussed in link.

> I read the manual of afio but it didn't convince me, so I'm considering
> using tar and gzip. 

I'd stick to tar.

> To create the whole backup archive first and then split it into pieces
> (volumes) might take too much space, but I have a special partition
> (~800MB) available. To employ split seems not appropriate ("Hey, wait!
> I want to change the medium.") The package description of afio implies
> that compressed tar archives might not be save. Is it safer to
> compress first and archive then? (This would decrease the compression
> rate due to Ziv Lempel, and extracting would be more complicated.) Of
> course it would be nice to be able to restore only
> a certain file.
> 
> If somebody has experience with kbackup and kbackup-multibuf
> (espescially with CD-Burners) I would appreciate to hear it.

I prefer tape for whole-system backups.  More capacity, relatively
inexpensive.  CDs are just too small.

> Is it clever to constrain access to the machine during the backup
> process?  

Helpful, possibly.  Necessary?  No.  My last full backup missed two
files, with normal use, out of ten partitions / directories backed up.

> BTW: Why is there a standard user called "backup" who can't
> read all files?

Dunno.

> I'm especially interested in how a complete restore procedure would look
> like (say the hard disc was broken and I bought a new one).

  - Replace disk.
  - Install base Debian system.
  - Recover package list from archive, set selections with:
  
      $ dpkg --set-selections < package.list

  - Update system with 'apt-get upgrade'.

  - Restore /etc and other partitions from backups.

  - Verify.


-- 
Karsten M. Self <kmself@ix.netcom.com>    http://kmself.home.netcom.com/
 What part of "Gestalt" don't you understand?       There is no K5 cabal
  http://gestalt-system.sourceforge.net/         http://www.kuro5hin.org

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