Re: [gentoo-user] simple backups
Nick Smith wrote: well what is the difference between rsync and rdiff-backup if the latter is based on rsync? was there something added? Yep, it handles incremental backups and allows you to restore backups from a certain date, more like a real backup system than plain rsync. More info at: http://www.nongnu.org/rdiff-backup /Andreas -- gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list
Re: [gentoo-user] simple backups
Just a note for all users in Germany on this topic: Charly Kühnasts sysadmin article in the current german Linux-Magazin is about rsnapshot. Another tool to mention is unison, which serves me well since years, also combining rsync and ssh. Regards -- Maik Musall [EMAIL PROTECTED] GPG public key 0x856861EB (keyserver: wwwkeys.de.pgp.net) pgpYG5mw4iv1U.pgp Description: PGP signature
Re: [gentoo-user] simple backups
-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE- Hash: SHA1 Nick Smith wrote: | i read up on the man page of rsync and got that this command will backup | my server to another external drive i have: | | mail root # rsync -avz / /mnt/backup/ | If you are looking for a way to make backups and to have incremental backups you should look at dump and restore. You have the ability to search and restore individual files from the backups. A simple command to make a full backup of your systems / would be: dump 0uf /mnt/backup/ epoch-`date +%F` /dev/hda3 This will produce a file called: epoch-2005-02-04 It will contain everything on the partition /dev/hda3 To create an incremental of everything has changed since the epoch you would use: dump 9uf /mnt/backup/ inc-`date +%F` /dev/hda3 To restore a file in interactive mode you would use: restore -if /mnt/backup/epoch-2005-02-04 or inc-2005-02-04 For more information on dump and restore please refer to your friendly man pages. Mike - -- Mike Noble Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Key ID: 0xFFDFC13B Key fingerprint: 8204 1297 B9AD 0CED 2FCE 1FB0 9491 5824 FFDF C13B Keyserver: http://pgpkeys.mit.edu -BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE- Version: GnuPG v1.2.6 (GNU/Linux) iD8DBQFCA8ualJFYJP/fwTsRArcxAJ48cbDi6RjjtR6g6vyZatdib3Y9zwCfeaxk ApVA+PjK0aEgrCX+ddo1a9o= =oi6H -END PGP SIGNATURE- -- gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list
[gentoo-user] simple backups
i read up on the man page of rsync and got that this command will backup my server to another external drive i have: mail root # rsync -avz / /mnt/backup/ but when i run that command i get a bunch of 'no such file errors' and then it starts coping everything. is this bad? building file list ... readlink //proc/2/task/2/exe failed: No such file or directory readlink //proc/2/exe failed: No such file or directory readlink //proc/3/task/3/exe failed: No such file or directory readlink //proc/3/exe failed: No such file or directory readlink //proc/4/task/4/exe failed: No such file or directory readlink //proc/4/exe failed: No such file or directory readlink //proc/5/task/5/exe failed: No such file or directory readlink //proc/5/exe failed: No such file or directory readlink //proc/6/task/6/exe failed: No such file or directory readlink //proc/6/exe failed: No such file or directory readlink //proc/7/task/7/exe failed: No such file or directory readlink //proc/7/exe failed: No such file or directory readlink //proc/8/task/8/exe failed: No such file or directory readlink //proc/8/exe failed: No such file or directory readlink //proc/22/task/22/exe failed: No such file or directory readlink //proc/22/exe failed: No such file or directory readlink //proc/95/task/95/exe failed: No such file or directory readlink //proc/95/exe failed: No such file or directory readlink //proc/96/task/96/exe failed: No such file or directory readlink //proc/96/exe failed: No such file or directory readlink //proc/109/task/109/exe failed: No such file or directory readlink //proc/109/exe failed: No such file or directory readlink //proc/200/task/200/exe failed: No such file or directory readlink //proc/200/exe failed: No such file or directory readlink //proc/201/task/201/exe failed: No such file or directory readlink //proc/201/exe failed: No such file or directory readlink //proc/203/task/203/exe failed: No such file or directory readlink //proc/203/exe failed: No such file or directory readlink //proc/202/task/202/exe failed: No such file or directory readlink //proc/202/exe failed: No such file or directory readlink //proc/204/task/204/exe failed: No such file or directory readlink //proc/204/exe failed: No such file or directory readlink //proc/796/task/796/exe failed: No such file or directory readlink //proc/796/exe failed: No such file or directory readlink //proc/852/task/852/exe failed: No such file or directory readlink //proc/852/exe failed: No such file or directory readlink //proc/853/task/853/exe failed: No such file or directory readlink //proc/853/exe failed: No such file or directory readlink //proc/855/task/855/exe failed: No such file or directory readlink //proc/855/exe failed: No such file or directory readlink //proc/856/task/856/exe failed: No such file or directory readlink //proc/856/exe failed: No such file or directory readlink //proc/893/task/893/exe failed: No such file or directory readlink //proc/893/exe failed: No such file or directory readlink //proc/894/task/894/exe failed: No such file or directory readlink //proc/894/exe failed: No such file or directory readlink //proc/895/task/895/exe failed: No such file or directory readlink //proc/895/exe failed: No such file or directory readlink //proc/17853/task/17853/exe failed: No such file or directory readlink //proc/17853/exe failed: No such file or directory readlink //proc/17854/task/17854/exe failed: No such file or directory readlink //proc/17854/exe failed: No such file or directory done the root drive is 80gig, and im backing up to an external 160gig drive, in the event that the 80gig crashes will this be good enough to just copy the contents back to another drive and have it boot work just like before the crash? or am i going about this the wrong way? there is no X on this machine so it will have to be console based. also ive never made a cron job before, im using vixie-cron, how to i make this command run every week on sunday at 3am? thanks for the info Nick Smith Gentoo Linux: Portage 2.0.51-r14. kernel-2.6.9-gentoo-r13. 2005 i686 Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4. gcc(GCC): 3.3.5. UPTIME 19 days, 19:20 -- gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list
Re: [gentoo-user] simple backups
On Thu, 2005-02-03 at 11:04 -0500, Nick Smith wrote: i read up on the man page of rsync and got that this command will backup my server to another external drive i have: mail root # rsync -avz / /mnt/backup/ but when i run that command i get a bunch of 'no such file errors' and then it starts coping everything. is this bad? building file list ... readlink //proc/2/task/2/exe failed: No such file or directory readlink //proc/2/exe failed: No such file or directory readlink //proc/3/task/3/exe failed: No such file or directory readlink //proc/3/exe failed: No such file or directory readlink //proc/4/task/4/exe failed: No such file or directory readlink //proc/4/exe failed: No such file or directory readlink //proc/5/task/5/exe failed: No such file or directory readlink //proc/5/exe failed: No such file or directory readlink //proc/6/task/6/exe failed: No such file or directory readlink //proc/6/exe failed: No such file or directory readlink //proc/7/task/7/exe failed: No such file or directory readlink //proc/7/exe failed: No such file or directory readlink //proc/8/task/8/exe failed: No such file or directory readlink //proc/8/exe failed: No such file or directory readlink //proc/22/task/22/exe failed: No such file or directory readlink //proc/22/exe failed: No such file or directory readlink //proc/95/task/95/exe failed: No such file or directory readlink //proc/95/exe failed: No such file or directory readlink //proc/96/task/96/exe failed: No such file or directory readlink //proc/96/exe failed: No such file or directory readlink //proc/109/task/109/exe failed: No such file or directory readlink //proc/109/exe failed: No such file or directory readlink //proc/200/task/200/exe failed: No such file or directory readlink //proc/200/exe failed: No such file or directory readlink //proc/201/task/201/exe failed: No such file or directory readlink //proc/201/exe failed: No such file or directory readlink //proc/203/task/203/exe failed: No such file or directory readlink //proc/203/exe failed: No such file or directory readlink //proc/202/task/202/exe failed: No such file or directory readlink //proc/202/exe failed: No such file or directory readlink //proc/204/task/204/exe failed: No such file or directory readlink //proc/204/exe failed: No such file or directory readlink //proc/796/task/796/exe failed: No such file or directory readlink //proc/796/exe failed: No such file or directory readlink //proc/852/task/852/exe failed: No such file or directory readlink //proc/852/exe failed: No such file or directory readlink //proc/853/task/853/exe failed: No such file or directory readlink //proc/853/exe failed: No such file or directory readlink //proc/855/task/855/exe failed: No such file or directory readlink //proc/855/exe failed: No such file or directory readlink //proc/856/task/856/exe failed: No such file or directory readlink //proc/856/exe failed: No such file or directory readlink //proc/893/task/893/exe failed: No such file or directory readlink //proc/893/exe failed: No such file or directory readlink //proc/894/task/894/exe failed: No such file or directory readlink //proc/894/exe failed: No such file or directory readlink //proc/895/task/895/exe failed: No such file or directory readlink //proc/895/exe failed: No such file or directory readlink //proc/17853/task/17853/exe failed: No such file or directory readlink //proc/17853/exe failed: No such file or directory readlink //proc/17854/task/17854/exe failed: No such file or directory readlink //proc/17854/exe failed: No such file or directory done the root drive is 80gig, and im backing up to an external 160gig drive, in the event that the 80gig crashes will this be good enough to just copy the contents back to another drive and have it boot work just like before the crash? or am i going about this the wrong way? there is no X on this machine so it will have to be console based. also ive never made a cron job before, im using vixie-cron, how to i make this command run every week on sunday at 3am? thanks for the info Nick Smith Gentoo Linux: Portage 2.0.51-r14. kernel-2.6.9-gentoo-r13. 2005 i686 Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4. gcc(GCC): 3.3.5. UPTIME 19 days, 19:20 sorry for replying to my own email, but i wanted to add, that it would be nice if it would check to see if the file already existed from a previous backup and if it had the same date/size etc it would skip it and move on to the next file, because alot of these files wont be changing (this is an email server, and archived mail wont change) does my current setup allow for that or do i have to do something different? because i think that would speed up backups considerably, no? thanks again -- gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list
Re: [gentoo-user] simple backups
On Thu, 2005-02-03 at 12:14, Nick Smith wrote: On Thu, 2005-02-03 at 11:04 -0500, Nick Smith wrote: i read up on the man page of rsync and got that this command will backup my server to another external drive i have: mail root # rsync -avz / /mnt/backup/ but when i run that command i get a bunch of 'no such file errors' and then it starts coping everything. is this bad? Well... it's probably not doing any harm, but rsync is trying to make copies of /proc, which is not real files. Try rsync -avz --exclude=/proc / /mnt/backup/ Upon inspection, you'll find there are probably other places you'll want to exclude. sorry for replying to my own email, but i wanted to add, that it would be nice if it would check to see if the file already existed from a previous backup and if it had the same date/size etc it would skip it and move on to the next file, because alot of these files wont be changing (this is an email server, and archived mail wont change) does my current setup allow for that or do i have to do something different? because i think that would speed up backups considerably, no? rsync -a is already doing exactly that. You should run rsync again immediately after it's finished, and notice that only changed files are listed the second time. -- Arran -- gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list
Re: [gentoo-user] simple backups
Nick Smith wrote: On Thu, 2005-02-03 at 11:04 -0500, Nick Smith wrote: i read up on the man page of rsync and got that this command will backup my server to another external drive i have: mail root # rsync -avz / /mnt/backup/ You should at least exclude /sys /proc /dev from the backup A better alternative might be to use rdiff-backup which will do pretty much what u want including incremental backups and restores... /Andreas -- gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list
Re: [gentoo-user] simple backups
building file list ... readlink //proc/2/task/2/exe failed: No such You should always exclude the /proc filesystem from your backups. The data there is generated dynamically by the kernel. Matt -- gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list
Re: [gentoo-user] simple backups
On Thu, 03 Feb 2005 11:04:57 -0500, Nick Smith wrote: mail root # rsync -avz / /mnt/backup/ but when i run that command i get a bunch of 'no such file errors' and then it starts coping everything. is this bad? You need to use the -x option to stop it trying to back up /dev, /proc, /sys etc, or --exclude these directories specifically. As for copying everything, that's what rsync does the first time. After then, it updates. You should read the rsync man page again, there's a lot there and it won't all take the first time. -- Neil Bothwick Linux users do it without paying a Bill pgpRSwAqT3xz7.pgp Description: PGP signature
Re: [gentoo-user] simple backups
Nick Smith wrote: i read up on the man page of rsync and got that this command will backup my server to another external drive i have: rsync is not really intended for that sort of backup. rsync is good at copying your own user files to a remote PC - it offers little or no advantage when simply copying between devices attached to your local PC. I think you want to look at dd the disk duplicator. This command will allow you to take an exact copy of a smaller hard-disk and store it on a larger one using a single command.. a restore operation uses a similar single command line. Having made an image of your first disk you might consider compressing it - I'd expect your large disk to be suitable to store several compressed copies of your main drive. The errors you saw were because not everything with a path in the file system is an ordinary file - in Unix-like operating systems devices are accessed by a path just like a file, but unlike a file cannot be just copied. -- gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list
Re: [gentoo-user] simple backups
On Thu, 03 Feb 2005 16:52:48 +, Steve wrote: rsync is good at copying your own user files to a remote PC - it offers little or no advantage when simply copying between devices attached to your local PC. I disagree. rsync is excellent for keeping a local backup as it only copies those files that have changed. dd takes for ever so is run rarely, rsync can be run from /etc/cron.hourly if you wish. rdiff-backup, as has already been mentioned, is probably better for this, but it too is based on rsync. -- Neil Bothwick The trouble with doing something right the first time is that nobody appreciates how difficult it was. pgpSwWoWBLySN.pgp Description: PGP signature
Re: [gentoo-user] simple backups
Neil Bothwick wrote: On Thu, 03 Feb 2005 16:52:48 +, Steve wrote: rsync is good at copying your own user files to a remote PC - it offers little or no advantage when simply copying between devices attached to your local PC. I disagree. rsync is excellent for keeping a local backup as it only copies those files that have changed. dd takes for ever so is run rarely, rsync can be run from /etc/cron.hourly if you wish. rdiff-backup, as has already been mentioned, is probably better for this, but it too is based on rsync. Fair comment... I stand corrected that rsync/rdiff-backup are appropriate for backup of user files. This issue is an old one of trade off between being able to make fast backups and being able to recover quickly. IMHO the dd approach is still valid and useful as it is one of the few ways to ensure rapid disaster recovery. I agree that an rsync approach permits more frequent backups to be made for user files. Maybe a better recommendation would have been a combination of dd to take an image of the install - then rsync to keep regular copies of user files. -- gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list
Re: [gentoo-user] simple backups
On Thu, February 3, 2005 11:04 am, Nick Smith said: i read up on the man page of rsync and got that this command will backup my server to another external drive i have: mail root # rsync -avz / /mnt/backup/ but when i run that command i get a bunch of 'no such file errors' and then it starts coping everything. is this bad? [snip] the root drive is 80gig, and im backing up to an external 160gig drive, in the event that the 80gig crashes will this be good enough to just copy the contents back to another drive and have it boot work just like before the crash? or am i going about this the wrong way? there is no X on this machine so it will have to be console based. also ive never made a cron job before, im using vixie-cron, how to i make this command run every week on sunday at 3am? Correct me if I'm wrong, but shouldn't you also exclude the mountpoint to which you're backing up? I would think that rsync would be able to detect a potential infinite recursion, but I've never tried it myself. Idea here is that you shouldn't include the backup destination in the backup itself, and since you're backing up / and /mnt/backup is part of /, you'd think it would have recursion problems. To make the job run Sundays at 0300, first run `crontab -e` as the user who should run the cron'd command. It sounds like you'd need it to be root if you don't want to get permission errors, but you may want to create a different user to run the cron job, then do fun things with groups in order to get access to the files you need. That, or create a new user who is a member of the root group, edit the crontab, then change the login shell for that user to /dev/null so that they can't log in. Running `crontab -e` will open your favorite editor (as defined by your EDITOR environment variable) in which you can add crontab lines. Their syntax can be found here: http://www.adminschoice.com/docs/crontab.htm I'd also recommend, after you get things running smoothly, using the quiet switch to cut rsync's output. That is, unless you want a report e-mailed daily to the user whose crontab contains the rsync command. If this user is really restricted, you might end up seeing a lot of sendmail (or other MTA) errors in your logs. Wouldn't want to bog down your local MTA's queue with a whole nutload of cron reports that can't be delivered! Best of luck, Dave -- gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list
Re: [gentoo-user] simple backups
On Thu, 03 Feb 2005 18:06:27 +, Steve wrote: Fair comment... I stand corrected that rsync/rdiff-backup are appropriate for backup of user files. This issue is an old one of trade off between being able to make fast backups and being able to recover quickly. IMHO the dd approach is still valid and useful as it is one of the few ways to ensure rapid disaster recovery. I agree that an rsync approach permits more frequent backups to be made for user files. Maybe a better recommendation would have been a combination of dd to take an image of the install - then rsync to keep regular copies of user files. I'd still disagree, rsync or rdiff-backup create an exact mirror of the file tree, so you have a backup that is extremely fast to restore from, especially for individual files. If I want an image of the partition, I'll use partimage as it is several orders of magnitude faster than dd and produces smaller archives. As a backup tool dd is about as friendly as backing up to punched cards :( -- Neil Bothwick Gotta run, cat's caught in the printer... pgptUH9kNdR6G.pgp Description: PGP signature
Re: [gentoo-user] simple backups
Neil Bothwick wrote: On Thu, 03 Feb 2005 18:06:27 +, Steve wrote: Fair comment... I stand corrected that rsync/rdiff-backup are appropriate for backup of user files. This issue is an old one of trade off between being able to make fast backups and being able to recover quickly. IMHO the dd approach is still valid and useful as it is one of the few ways to ensure rapid disaster recovery. I agree that an rsync approach permits more frequent backups to be made for user files. Maybe a better recommendation would have been a combination of dd to take an image of the install - then rsync to keep regular copies of user files. I'd still disagree, rsync or rdiff-backup create an exact mirror of the file tree, so you have a backup that is extremely fast to restore from, especially for individual files. If I want an image of the partition, I'll use partimage as it is several orders of magnitude faster than dd and produces smaller archives. As a backup tool dd is about as friendly as backing up to punched cards :( OK - I also admit that partimage would be a superior choice to dd... I guess my only significant point is that a backup that quickly restores devices etc. is not addressed best by trying to copy files. I guess I inferred more from the original subject than you did. For a Simple Backup where you want to duplicate everything from one drive to another I remain convinced that you want to copy the partition(s) and not the files - whereas for a more ambitious incremental backup strategy of user files we agree that rsync/rdiff approaches may well prove superior. Among the complications involved with rsync one should consider the potential consequences of a hardware failure during an update phase; the possibility that a file is accidentally deleted and the backup is refreshed before the missing file discovered. For a mail server, I can't help thinking that the ideal solution would be some (possibly bespoke) mechanism to push emails from the primary server to a secondary server (or maybe just a secondary disk) as it arrives (possibly with a queue as necessary) and not to delete data from the secondary server when it is deleted from the first, but rather to archive the eldest data regularly in order to ensure the disks do not fill. This, however, could not be considered a simple backup by most. [Neil - you'd impress me by naming a tool that would do this 'ideal solution' without the need for writing bespoke scripts...] Do we still disagree? :-) -- gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list
Re: [gentoo-user] simple backups
Another option for doing backups is snapback2. It uses rsync, and has some really nice features. I have contributed an ebuild, and it can be found on http://bugs.gentoo.org, just search on snapback2. Kevin On Thu, 03 Feb 2005 19:27:34 +, Steve [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Neil Bothwick wrote: On Thu, 03 Feb 2005 18:06:27 +, Steve wrote: Fair comment... I stand corrected that rsync/rdiff-backup are appropriate for backup of user files. This issue is an old one of trade off between being able to make fast backups and being able to recover quickly. IMHO the dd approach is still valid and useful as it is one of the few ways to ensure rapid disaster recovery. I agree that an rsync approach permits more frequent backups to be made for user files. Maybe a better recommendation would have been a combination of dd to take an image of the install - then rsync to keep regular copies of user files. I'd still disagree, rsync or rdiff-backup create an exact mirror of the file tree, so you have a backup that is extremely fast to restore from, especially for individual files. If I want an image of the partition, I'll use partimage as it is several orders of magnitude faster than dd and produces smaller archives. As a backup tool dd is about as friendly as backing up to punched cards :( OK - I also admit that partimage would be a superior choice to dd... I guess my only significant point is that a backup that quickly restores devices etc. is not addressed best by trying to copy files. I guess I inferred more from the original subject than you did. For a Simple Backup where you want to duplicate everything from one drive to another I remain convinced that you want to copy the partition(s) and not the files - whereas for a more ambitious incremental backup strategy of user files we agree that rsync/rdiff approaches may well prove superior. Among the complications involved with rsync one should consider the potential consequences of a hardware failure during an update phase; the possibility that a file is accidentally deleted and the backup is refreshed before the missing file discovered. For a mail server, I can't help thinking that the ideal solution would be some (possibly bespoke) mechanism to push emails from the primary server to a secondary server (or maybe just a secondary disk) as it arrives (possibly with a queue as necessary) and not to delete data from the secondary server when it is deleted from the first, but rather to archive the eldest data regularly in order to ensure the disks do not fill. This, however, could not be considered a simple backup by most. [Neil - you'd impress me by naming a tool that would do this 'ideal solution' without the need for writing bespoke scripts...] Do we still disagree? :-) -- gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list -- gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list
Re: [gentoo-user] simple backups
Neil Bothwick ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) scribbled: On Thu, 03 Feb 2005 18:06:27 +, Steve wrote: Fair comment... I stand corrected that rsync/rdiff-backup are appropriate for backup of user files. This issue is an old one of trade off between being able to make fast backups and being able to recover quickly. IMHO the dd approach is still valid and useful as it is one of the few ways to ensure rapid disaster recovery. I agree that an rsync approach permits more frequent backups to be made for user files. Maybe a better recommendation would have been a combination of dd to take an image of the install - then rsync to keep regular copies of user files. I'd still disagree, rsync or rdiff-backup create an exact mirror of the file tree, so you have a backup that is extremely fast to restore from, especially for individual files. If I want an image of the partition, I'll use partimage as it is several orders of magnitude faster than dd and produces smaller archives. As a backup tool dd is about as friendly as backing up to punched cards :( Why not a combination of the two? Use dd to a file to create an initial image of the partition. Then, once per night, mount it as a loopback file, and rsync it... This way if you have a catastrophic drive failure, you can low-level re-image the drive. 2c yada. Cooper. -- gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list
Re: [gentoo-user] simple backups
On Thu, 3 Feb 2005, Steve wrote: snip I think you want to look at dd the disk duplicator. This command will allow you to take an exact copy of a smaller hard-disk and store it on a larger one using a single command.. a restore operation uses a similar single command line. Having made an image of your first disk you might consider compressing it - I'd expect your large disk to be suitable to store several compressed copies of your main drive. snip Be careful with compression. If a huge compressed file damages, the whole file could be useless. Cheers, Tamas Sarga -- A day is 24 hours long. Egy nap 24 rbl ll. A box of beer contains 24 bottles. Egy tlcn 24 veg sr van. I don't believe in coincidence. Nem hiszek a vletlen egybeessekben. -- gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list
Re: [gentoo-user] simple backups
On Thu, 03 Feb 2005 19:27:34 +, Steve wrote: I'd still disagree, rsync or rdiff-backup create an exact mirror of the file tree, so you have a backup that is extremely fast to restore from, especially for individual files. If I want an image of the partition, I'll use partimage as it is several orders of magnitude faster than dd and produces smaller archives. As a backup tool dd is about as friendly as backing up to punched cards :( OK - I also admit that partimage would be a superior choice to dd... I guess my only significant point is that a backup that quickly restores devices etc. is not addressed best by trying to copy files. I guess I inferred more from the original subject than you did. For a Simple Backup where you want to duplicate everything from one drive to another I remain convinced that you want to copy the partition(s) and not the files - whereas for a more ambitious incremental backup strategy of user files we agree that rsync/rdiff approaches may well prove superior. It depends on what you are insuring against. To cover drive failure, a partition image is best,and fastest to restore a whole drive. I make partimage backups from time to time. To insure against operator error, such as deleting a file, overwriting a working config with a broken one etc, file based backups are better. So you really need both. Among the complications involved with rsync one should consider the potential consequences of a hardware failure during an update phase; the possibility that a file is accidentally deleted and the backup is refreshed before the missing file discovered. That's an issue with rsync, but not with rdiff-backup, which keeps older files. You can restore older versions of files, or deleted files for as long as they stay in the backup. For a mail server, I can't help thinking that the ideal solution would be some (possibly bespoke) mechanism to push emails from the primary server to a secondary server (or maybe just a secondary disk) as it arrives (possibly with a queue as necessary) and not to delete data from the secondary server when it is deleted from the first, but rather to archive the eldest data regularly in order to ensure the disks do not fill. This, however, could not be considered a simple backup by most. [Neil - you'd impress me by naming a tool that would do this 'ideal solution' without the need for writing bespoke scripts...] You can use a procmail rule to send a copy of a mail to a backup file. :0c: /mnt/backup/mail/$USER.backup Do we still disagree? :-) Not now, but I'm sure I can think of something, given time ;-) -- Neil Bothwick Loose bits sink chips. -- gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list
Re: [gentoo-user] simple backups
On Thu, 2005-02-03 at 17:19 +0100, Andreas Vinsander wrote: Nick Smith wrote: On Thu, 2005-02-03 at 11:04 -0500, Nick Smith wrote: i read up on the man page of rsync and got that this command will backup my server to another external drive i have: mail root # rsync -avz / /mnt/backup/ You should at least exclude /sys /proc /dev from the backup A better alternative might be to use rdiff-backup which will do pretty much what u want including incremental backups and restores... /Andreas well what is the difference between rsync and rdiff-backup if the latter is based on rsync? was there something added? -- gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list
Re: [gentoo-user] simple backups
On Thu, 2005-02-03 at 16:25 +, Neil Bothwick wrote: On Thu, 03 Feb 2005 11:04:57 -0500, Nick Smith wrote: mail root # rsync -avz / /mnt/backup/ but when i run that command i get a bunch of 'no such file errors' and then it starts coping everything. is this bad? You need to use the -x option to stop it trying to back up /dev, /proc, /sys etc, or --exclude these directories specifically. As for copying everything, that's what rsync does the first time. After then, it updates. You should read the rsync man page again, there's a lot there and it won't all take the first time. when i try rdiff-backup i get this: mail root # rdiff-backup --include / \ --exclude /dev /proc /sys /mnt/backup/system \ Error: Switches missing or wrong number of arguments \ See the rdiff-backup manual page for instructions \ i even made a file list.txt with this in it: / - /sys - /proc - /dev - /mnt/backup and ran the command: mail root # rdiff-backup --exclude-filelist \ list.txt /mnt/backup/system_backup/ and i get the same error, what am i doing wrong? -- gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list
Re: [gentoo-user] simple backups
Neil Bothwick wrote: Among the complications involved with rsync one should consider the potential consequences of a hardware failure during an update phase; the possibility that a file is accidentally deleted and the backup is refreshed before the missing file discovered. That's an issue with rsync, but not with rdiff-backup, which keeps older files. You can restore older versions of files, or deleted files for as long as they stay in the backup. I like being the less up-to-date - it is more interesting. :-) I've rdiff-backup on my list of man-pages to read. For a mail server, I can't help thinking that the ideal solution would be some (possibly bespoke) mechanism to push emails from the primary server to a secondary server (or maybe just a secondary disk) as it arrives (possibly with a queue as necessary) and not to delete data from the secondary server when it is deleted from the first, but rather to archive the eldest data regularly in order to ensure the disks do not fill. This, however, could not be considered a simple backup by most. [Neil - you'd impress me by naming a tool that would do this 'ideal solution' without the need for writing bespoke scripts...] You can use a procmail rule to send a copy of a mail to a backup file. :0c: /mnt/backup/mail/$USER.backup Of course, but (I ask provocatively) - won't that use mailbox rather than maildir format -hence introducing complications of locking? Isn't there an issue in getting this to be a system wide setting not a per-user thing? For a mail server with centralised administration - isn't something closer to the MTA more appropriate? [BTW - you didn't solve the archiving bit :-P ] Do we still disagree? :-) Not now, but I'm sure I can think of something, given time ;-) That's good - people who agree with me are usually dull. :-) Steve
Re: [gentoo-user] simple backups
On Fri, 04 Feb 2005 00:14:25 +, Steve wrote: That's an issue with rsync, but not with rdiff-backup, which keeps older files. You can restore older versions of files, or deleted files for as long as they stay in the backup. I like being the less up-to-date - it is more interesting. :-) I've rdiff-backup on my list of man-pages to read. I was fortunate enough to be paid to write a review of backup software recently. It forced me to put my house in order :) For a mail server, I can't help thinking that the ideal solution would be some (possibly bespoke) mechanism to push emails from the primary server to a secondary server (or maybe just a secondary disk) as it arrives (possibly with a queue as necessary) and not to delete data from the secondary server when it is deleted from the first, but rather to archive the eldest data regularly in order to ensure the disks do not fill. This, however, could not be considered a simple backup by most. [Neil - you'd impress me by naming a tool that would do this 'ideal solution' without the need for writing bespoke scripts...] You can use a procmail rule to send a copy of a mail to a backup file. :0c: /mnt/backup/mail/$USER.backup Of course, but (I ask provocatively) - won't that use mailbox rather than maildir format -hence introducing complications of locking? The trailing colon forces procmail to use, and respect, file locks. it's probably possibly to do it in maildir instead, but I still use mailbox files here. Switching over is somewhere on my list of things to do. there an issue in getting this to be a system wide setting not a per-user thing? For a mail server with centralised administration - isn't something closer to the MTA more appropriate? You could put a rule like this in the global procmail file. i'm sure there are better ways of doing it, especially on a medium to large scale setup, but it works for me. [BTW - you didn't solve the archiving bit :-P ] OK, that is a (very short) custom script, that archives the backup files once a week. That's good - people who agree with me are usually dull. :-) Should I agree or disagree with that? ;-) -- Neil Bothwick 667 - The FAX number of the beast pgpjaR1JR6xWA.pgp Description: PGP signature
Re: [gentoo-user] simple backups
On Thu, 03 Feb 2005 11:50:17 -0500, Nick Smith wrote: when i try rdiff-backup i get this: mail root # rdiff-backup --include / \ --exclude /dev /proc /sys /mnt/backup/system \ Error: Switches missing or wrong number of arguments \ See the rdiff-backup manual page for instructions \ i even made a file list.txt with this in it: / - /sys - /proc - /dev - /mnt/backup and ran the command: mail root # rdiff-backup --exclude-filelist \ list.txt /mnt/backup/system_backup/ and i get the same error, what am i doing wrong? You haven't given a source directory. --include only specifies files within the source to include and it used to override parts of an --exclude. You need # cat list.txt /sys /proc /dev /mnt/backup rdiff-backup --exclude-filelist list.txt / /mnt/backup/system_backup/ -- Neil Bothwick Sacred cows make great hamburgers. pgpPNMLqC49Cx.pgp Description: PGP signature
