[PLUG] (OT) Backup Software Suggestions

[Mark Phillips]

I am looking for a recommendation on backup software. I have a backup
server and I have two local machines and one remote machine to backup (all
Debian or Ubuntu - no Windows machines to worry about). The backup server
is just command line Debian - no gui - since I only use ssh to talk to it.
I have a new 4 TB drive ready for backups and don't know what to do with
it..;)

I used rsnapshot for awhile, but the backups had issues from time to time,
and I am tired of troubleshooting it. Also the reporting tool rsnapreport
didn't seem to work. With rsnapshot I was seeing ~ 1TB of backup data on my
backup drive.

I have use backuppc in the past, but it seems to be on the decline now and
has been for awhile.

I started using a cloud backup solution, altdrive, but they are closing
shop in February. Also, it was java based, and used a lot  of CPU to make
backups. It could be throttled, but then the backups took a really long
time (hours to days). Finally, I had great difficulty restoring from the
backups - I was told they were too big and the server kept timing out! So I
had to reconfigure all of my backups to smaller sets of directories.

So, any suggestions? Inexpensive cloud backup? Local backup? I have seen
recommendations for Borg for local backups over ssh and it has a web gui
front end which may be useful. I like that it is in Python (I can read it
as opposed to perl...). Other suggestions?

Thanks!

Mark
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Re: [PLUG] (OT) Backup Software Suggestions

[Rich Shepard]

On Thu, 26 Jan 2017, Mark Phillips wrote:

> So, any suggestions? Inexpensive cloud backup? Local backup? I have seen
> recommendations for Borg for local backups over ssh and it has a web gui
> front end which may be useful. I like that it is in Python (I can read it
> as opposed to perl...). Other suggestions?

Mark,

   I've been using dirvish  for several years and
like it. It's built on rsync and while setup can be confusing, once up and
running it just keeps on going. I've not done a full restore from it, but
have recovered files and directories without any issues.

   I make backups daily and keep them for only a few months. Keith keeps his
forever.

   Perhaps it will suit your needs, too.

Rich
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Re: [PLUG] (OT) Backup Software Suggestions

[Paul Heinlein]

On Thu, 26 Jan 2017, Rich Shepard wrote:

> On Thu, 26 Jan 2017, Mark Phillips wrote:
>
>> So, any suggestions? Inexpensive cloud backup? Local backup?

If you're considering cloud backups, take a peek at CloudBerry:

   https://www.cloudberrylab.com/backup/linux.aspx

I found it had all the features I needed, was easy to use, and worked 
like a charm with Amazon S3. It'll handle either per-directory backups 
or can be used for bare-metal recovery (though I haven't test the 
latter capability).

The free version is fairly limited (up to 200 GB storage), but it'll 
give you a sense of what it can do.

There are plenty of open-source products that will back up your 
systems, and this recommendation is no knock on them. CloudBerry saved 
me a lot of time, and that was my big priority when I implemented it.

-- 
Paul Heinlein <> heinl...@madboa.com <> http://www.madboa.com/
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Re: [PLUG] (OT) Backup Software Suggestions (Mark Phillips)

[Brian P. Martin]

I also have used dirvish (dirvish.org) for years, both in my office and 
at my client sites.  Depending on circumstances, I use a variety of 
storage solutions:

- For small sites, I use a USB disk drive, which I automount when needed 
and dismount when it's idle.  Of course, you could do the mounts by 
hand, too.  I usually have 3 or more disks, which I rotate off-site on a 
regular basis.  Rotation means a fire doesn't destroy your machine *and* 
its only back-up.  It also gives you some coverage in case of a drive 
failure on your back-up drive.
- For larger sites, I use a full size hard drive or a collection of 
drives in hot-swap SATA enclosures.  I use the automounter the same, and 
rotate them out as needed.
- For sites that have multiple locations, I have two dirvish 
installations at different locations.  Each backs up the "other" site to 
local, RAID-ed hard disks, which just live there permanently.

I've done full system restores from Dirvish.  There are a few things 
Dirvish doesn't get on the back-ups, and most back-ups don't get these 
either.  These include:
- the boot sector
- partition layouts
- databases. Dirvish backs up database files, but they're probably not 
any good unless the database server was down at the time.  You can use 
the preclient setting in dirvish to shut the database down, or if it 
can't come down then use its native utilities to back it up to a flat 
file, and let dirvish capture that.

I have code that dumps a lot of key information about a system (like the 
partition layout) to the local disk on a weekly basis, and dirvish 
captures that.  That gives me the info I need to, say, rebuild a trashed 
partition layout on an otherwise sound disk.

Dirvish is a "pull" backup approach, in that it runs in one place but 
can pull data from multiple machines if that's of interest to you.

An alternative from a few years back is duplicity.  I'm not sure of the 
current state of it, so you'll have to see if it's still active, but I 
suspect it is.

Duplicity is a push solution, in that it runs on the machine that is to 
be backed up, and stores the data on a remote machine.  Duplicity is 
able to use cloud storage in addition to remote solutions. Push 
solutions are good when your storage is available to you, but you can't 
otherwise manage the remote machine (e.g. can't install your own 
software, set up cron jobs, etc.).  They are fine for small set-ups of 
just a machine or two, but don't scale well because you have to install 
them individually on each machine that needs back-ups.  You also have to 
monitor the job on each machine to make sure it's working.  Pull 
solutions like dirvish can handle an arbitrary number of machines in a 
single run, assuming  you have a large enough back-up window.

Good luck.  Back ups are worth the effort.  They've saved me many times.

 -B.

-- 

Brian P. Martin, Chief Consultant
Martin Consulting Services, Inc.
Phone: 503-617-4500
E-mail: br...@martinconsulting.com

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Re: [PLUG] (OT) Backup Software Suggestions (Mark Phillips)

[Rich Shepard]

On Thu, 26 Jan 2017, Brian P. Martin wrote:

> - For small sites, I use a USB disk drive, which I automount when needed
> and dismount when it's idle.  Of course, you could do the mounts by
> hand, too.

   I have a 1T external USB hard drive sitting between the server and this
monitor. When I log off at night I turn it on; when I come in to log on in
the morning I turn it off. This has worked well for me for a number of
years.

> There are a few things Dirvish doesn't get on the back-ups, and most
> back-ups don't get these either. These include:
   ...
> - databases. Dirvish backs up database files, but they're probably not
> any good unless the database server was down at the time.  You can use
> the preclient setting in dirvish to shut the database down, or if it
> can't come down then use its native utilities to back it up to a flat
> file, and let dirvish capture that.

   Every Friday I backup the postgres cluster (using pg_dumpall) and the
company bookkeeping software (which writes that database to a .sql file) so
dirvish copies any changes to the backup disk.

   As a sole professional provider my needs are simpler than for
multi-employee companies with many computers. What I like about dirvish is
that once I had it properly configured it just does its thing.

Rich
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