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I'm administrating our Linux server and I need to do daily backups. I know how to use tar, but I'm not sure what exactly I should backup and can't seem to find help anywhere. Is there a particular directory/directories which I should back up? Are there any tips which would be helpful to me??
Distribution: Debian, Red Hat, Slackware, Fedora, Ubuntu
Posts: 13,602
Rep:
You should really backup everything, at least occasionally. Then do incremental daily backups. I would use dump to do this. What kind of drive are you backing up to?
I was thinking of backing up everything about every 2 weeks, and backing up incrementally every week night in between. Should I backup everything from / down??
Currently the backups are just going to be stored on another linux machine we have, but we're planning to get a dat drive in the near future - when I'm sure I'll be back asking questions again!
I'm also interested in doing backups. I would like to know what to do with /proc and /dev. Do I have to backup those directories? If I do. What do I do when restoring? Wouldn't it mess up the system? (at least /proc). Are there others "special" directories like those?
I'm a desktop user that likes to do a lot of experiments with his laptop. I've been playing with mysql, for instance, I've written some scripts to automate stuff in my PC, and also I'm writting my PhD thesis...
I'm not a server admin... yet.
Last edited by enemorales; 12-05-2005 at 09:42 AM.
I'd take a look at existing Linux file-backup systems like good ol' tried-and-true Amanda. (It's free...)
Note that you don't have to use tapes for backups. I use removable USB-2.0 hard drives. They fit in your shirt-pocket, and in a safe-deposit box.
The biggest and most important attribute of a backup, though, is simply the fact that it exists, it is current, and you actually know how to restore from it. You can set up a simple copy-job using rsync that executes every night and puts the changed files "somewhere else," on some other drive, and just by having that extra copy you're immediately better off than you were.
Backups: Just Do It!
You can home-grow a lot of things. For instance, a cron scheduled job, maybe running as a privileged user, which puts the backups into an out-of-the-way directory that is read-only to the user whose files are being backed up. But remember that you are definitely going into a territory that "has been done before, and done well." Look around for things, like Amanda, that have already been done.
Last edited by sundialsvcs; 12-05-2005 at 11:15 AM.
I'm a desktop user and would like to backup my files occasionally. Currently, I am simply copying 'My Documents' to 700 MB CD's.
I'm using Fedora Core 4 and attempting to do the backup via instructions contained in the FC3 Bible. I used the following instruction to invoke the 'mkisofs' file as instructed (minus the quote marks) as follows:
'mkisofs -R -o /var/tmp/bob.iso /home/Bob'
A 'bob.iso' file was created as requested in the /var/tmp folder. I then entered the following (with multiple attempts at adding/removing 'ignsize, dev=/dev/cdrom1, etc. Results are as follows:
'[root@localhost ~]# cdrecord -v -ignsize dev=/dev/cdrom1 -data /var/tmp/bob.iso
cdrecord: No write mode specified.
cdrecord: Asuming -tao mode.
cdrecord: Future versions of cdrecord may have different drive dependent defaults.
cdrecord: Continuing in 5 seconds...
Cdrecord-Clone 2.01-dvd (i686-pc-linux-gnu) Copyright (C) 1995-2004 Jörg Schilling
Note: This version is an unofficial (modified) version with DVD support
Note: and therefore may have bugs that are not present in the original.
Note: Please send bug reports or support requests to http://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla
Note: The author of cdrecord should not be bothered with problems in this version.
TOC Type: 1 = CD-ROM
scsidev: '/dev/cdrom1'
devname: '/dev/cdrom1'
scsibus: -2 target: -2 lun: -2
Linux sg driver version: 3.5.27
Using libscg version 'schily-0.8'.
cdrecord: Warning: using inofficial libscg transport code version (schily - Red Hat-scsi-linux-sg.c-1.83-RH '@(#)scsi-linux-sg.c 1.83 04/05/20 Copyright 1997 J. Schilling').
SCSI buffer size: 64512
atapi: 1
Device type : Removable CD-ROM
Version : 0
Response Format: 2
Capabilities :
Vendor_info : 'LITE-ON '
Identifikation : 'LTR-48246S '
Revision : 'SS04'
Device seems to be: Generic mmc CD-RW.
Current: 0x0009
Profile: 0x000A
Profile: 0x0009 (current)
Profile: 0x0008
Profile: 0x0002 (current)
Using generic SCSI-3/mmc CD-R/CD-RW driver (mmc_cdr).
Driver flags : MMC-3 SWABAUDIO BURNFREE FORCESPEED
Supported modes: TAO PACKET SAO SAO/R96P SAO/R96R RAW/R16 RAW/R96P RAW/R96R
Drive buf size : 1422080 = 1388 KB
FIFO size : 4194304 = 4096 KB
Track 01: data 3716 MB
Total size: 4268 MB (422:54.04) = 1903053 sectors
Lout start: 4268 MB (422:56/03) = 1903053 sectors
Current Secsize: 2048
ATIP info from disk:
Indicated writing power: 6
Is not unrestricted
Is not erasable
Disk sub type: Medium Type C, low Beta category (C-) (6)
ATIP start of lead in: -11231 (97:32/19)
ATIP start of lead out: 359846 (79:59/71)
Disk type: Short strategy type (Phthalocyanine or similar)
Manuf. index: 27
Manufacturer: Prodisc Technology Inc.
Blocks total: 359846 Blocks current: 359846 Blocks remaining: -1543207
cdrecord: WARNING: Data may not fit on current disk.
cdrecord: Notice: Overburning active. Trying to write more than the official disk capacity.
Forcespeed is OFF.
Speed set to 8448 KB/s
Starting to write CD/DVD at speed 48.0 in real TAO mode for single session.
Last chance to quit, starting real write 0 seconds. Operation starts.
Waiting for reader process to fill input buffer ... input buffer ready.
trackno=0
BURN-Free is ON.
Turning BURN-Free off
Performing OPC...
Starting new track at sector: 0
Track 01: 702 of 3716 MB written (fifo 100%) [buf 98%] 32.5x.cdrecord: Success. write_g1: scsi sendcmd: no error
CDB: 2A 00 00 05 7D 89 00 00 1F 00
status: 0x2 (CHECK CONDITION)
Sense Bytes: 70 00 05 00 00 00 00 0A 00 00 00 00 63 00 00 00
Sense Key: 0x5 Illegal Request, Segment 0
Sense Code: 0x63 Qual 0x00 (end of user area encountered on this track) Fru 0x0
Sense flags: Blk 0 (not valid)
resid: 63488
cmd finished after 9.307s timeout 40s
write track data: error after 736905216 bytes
cdrecord: A write error occured.
cdrecord: Please properly read the error message above.
Writing time: 175.331s
Average write speed 151.3x.
Min drive buffer fill was 50%
Fixating...
Fixating time: 19.415s
cdrecord: fifo had 11671 puts and 11608 gets.
cdrecord: fifo was 0 times empty and 5922 times full, min fill was 81%.
[root@localhost ~]#'
Sorry for the long copy. Evidently when I include -ignsize , the error probably is the 700 MB disc size; however, when I do not include it in the command line, I get other errors that it doesn't recognize the 'dev'. Can anyone that understands backup tell me where I am going wrong? I've tried various command line changes but still get other error messages.
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