On Mon, 15 Aug 2022 04:33:44 -0400, Dale wrote: > > William Kenworthy wrote: > > > > On 15/8/22 06:44, Dale wrote: > >> Howdy, > >> > >> With my new fiber internet, my poor disks are getting a work out, and > >> also filling up. First casualty, my backup disk. I have one directory > >> that is . . . well . . . huge. It's about 7TBs or so. This is where it > >> is right now and it's still trying to pack in files. > >> > >> > >> /dev/mapper/8tb 7.3T 7.1T 201G 98% /mnt/8tb > >> > >> > >> Right now, I'm using rsync which doesn't compress files but does just > >> update things that have changed. I'd like to find some way, software > >> but maybe there is already a tool I'm unaware of, to compress data and > >> work a lot like rsync otherwise. I looked in app-backup and there is a > >> lot of options but not sure which fits best for what I want to do. > >> Again, backup a directory, compress and only update with changed or new > >> files. Generally, it only adds files but sometimes a file gets replaced > >> as well. Same name but different size. > >> > >> I was trying to go through the list in app-backup one by one but to be > >> honest, most links included only go to github or something and usually > >> doesn't tell anything about how it works or anything. Basically, as far > >> as seeing if it does what I want, it's useless. It sort of reminds me of > >> quite a few USE flag descriptions. > >> > >> I plan to buy another hard drive pretty soon. Next month is possible. > >> If there is nothing available that does what I want, is there a way to > >> use rsync and have it set to backup files starting with "a" through "k" > >> to one spot and then backup "l" through "z" to another? I could then > >> split the files into two parts. I use a script to do this now, if one > >> could call my little things scripts, so even a complicated command could > >> work, just may need help figuring out the command. > >> > >> Thoughts? Ideas? > >> > >> Dale > >> > >> :-) :-) > >> > > The questions you need to ask is how compressible is the data and how > > much duplication is in there. Rsync's biggest disadvantage is it > > doesn't keep history, so if you need to restore something from last > > week you are SOL. Honestly, rsync is not a backup program and should > > only be used the way you do for data that don't value as an rsync > > archive is a disaster waiting to happen from a backup point of view. > > > > Look into dirvish - uses hard links to keep files current but safe, is > > easy to restore (looks like a exact copy so you cp the files back if > > needed. Downside is it hammers the hard disk and has no compression > > so its only deduplication via history (my backups stabilised about 2x > > original size for ~2yrs of history - though you can use something like > > btrfs which has filesystem level compression. > > > > My current program is borgbackup which is very sophisticated in how it > > stores data - its probably your best bet in fact. I am storing > > literally tens of Tb of raw data on a 4Tb usb3 disk (going back years > > and yes, I do restore regularly, and not just for disasters but for > > space efficient long term storage I access only rarely. > > > > e.g.: > > > > A single host: > > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > > > Original size Compressed size Deduplicated > > size > > All archives: 3.07 TB 1.96 TB > > 151.80 GB > > > > Unique chunks Total chunks > > Chunk index: 1026085 22285913 > > > > > > Then there is my offline storage - it backs up ~15 hosts (in repos > > like the above) + data storage like 22 years of email etc. Each host > > backs up to its own repo then the offline storage backs that up. The > > deduplicated size is the actual on disk size ... compression varies as > > its whatever I used at the time the backup was taken ... currently I > > have it set to "auto,zstd,11" but it can be mixed in the same repo (a > > repo is a single backup set - you can nest repos which is what I do - > > so ~45Tb stored on a 4Tb offline disk). One advantage of a system > > like this is chunked data rarely changes, so its only the differences > > that are backed up (read the borgbackup docs - interesting) > > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > > > Original size Compressed size Deduplicated > > size > > All archives: 28.69 TB 28.69 TB > > 3.81 TB > > > > Unique chunks Total chunks > > Chunk index: > > > > > > > > > > > For the particular drive in question, it is 99.99% videos. I don't want > to lose any quality but I'm not sure how much they can be compressed to > be honest. It could be they are already as compressed as they can be > without losing resolution etc. I've been lucky so far. I don't think > I've ever needed anything and did a backup losing what I lost on working > copy. Example. I update a video only to find the newer copy is corrupt > and wanting the old one back. I've done it a time or two but I tend to > find that before I do backups. Still, it is a downside and something > I've thought about before. I figure when it does happen, it will be > something hard to replace. Just letting the devil have his day. :-( > > For that reason, I find the version type backups interesting. It is a > safer method. You can have a new file but also have a older file as > well just in case new file takes a bad turn. It is a interesting > thought. It's one not only I should consider but anyone really. > > As I posted in another reply, I found a 10TB drive that should be here > by the time I do a fresh set of backups. This will give me more time to > consider things. Have I said this before a while back??? :/ >
zfs would solve your problem of corruption, even without versioning. You do a scrub at short intervals and at least you would know if the file is corrupted. Of course, redundancy is better, such as mirroring and backups take a very short time because sending from one zfs to another it knows exactly what bytes to send. -- Your life is like a penny. You're going to lose it. The question is: How do you spend it? John Covici wb2una cov...@ccs.covici.com