Backups on Linux

kwikbreaks

I have set up a home webserver on Ubuntu. I had already done so on a Pi 2 but that was way too slow for anything beyond anything pretty basic so I got a pretty ancient I3 desktop and a small SSD and went ahead. I've got it working well now but the setup took quite a while so I looked around for an image backup solution similar to Macrium Reflect and was amazed to find nothing like it seems to exist.

So - if you have a Linux system you backup against drive failure etc how do you do that?

debitcardmayhem

Look here for ideas, http://www.linuxlinks.com/article/20160424021828491/BackupTools.html

it depends on what you want to do
clonezilla or dd for full disks
but I usually use rsync or "find .... | cpio" and do backups on directory trees , there are GUI based ones if you don't want to use command line.

System

Hi

Well "rsync" and DuckDuckGo provides links to...

http://www.linuxlinks.com/article/20090105114152803/Backup.html

http://www.techradar.com/news/software/applications/best-linux-backup-software-8-tools-on-test-909380/2

http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/10-things/10-outstanding-linux-backup-utilities/

you pays your money and takes your choice ('cept it's all probably free).

kwikbreaks

Thanks. I was looking for suggestions from somebody who actually does such backups.

I'd read through umpteen articles and nothing seemed to come close to the tools you can get for windows for this.

John_Gray

kwikbreaks wrote: »

I'd read through umpteen articles and nothing seemed to come close to the tools you can get for windows for this.

That's fighting talk! :T
It would be interesting to determine why this should be the case...

were

Clonezilla should work. used it many times in the past on windows, and being a linux distro should work for you too.

kwikbreaks

I suspect it's because linux users love to spend hours reconfiguring their boxes after the disk screws up.

Professional users doubtless keep full images of their basic setups which they can squirt onto a disk and swapout the failed one in the server. User data, mysql backups, and stuff such as webroots are handled easily enough.

In fact I don't need the webroot as all my website source is on DropBox and several machines to start with. What I haven't got backed up is all the non-included software installs and configs for things such as nginx php mysql letsencrypt etc.etc.

kwikbreaks

I have issues with some Clonezilla limitations. I've highlighted what for me is pretty much a showstopper for a 24x7 server...

Limitations:

The destination partition must be equal or larger than the source one.

Differential/incremental backup is not implemented yet.

Online imaging/cloning is not implemented yet. The partition to be imaged or cloned has to be unmounted.

Due to the image format limitation, the image can not be explored or mounted. You can _NOT_ recovery single file from the image. However, you still have workaround to make it, read this.

Recovery Clonezilla live with multiple CDs or DVDs is not implemented yet. Now all the files have to be in one CD or DVD if you choose to create the recovery iso file.

The archives appear to be full size of the partition being backed up.

esuhl

The Arch Linux wiki lists a number of backup utilities you could use:

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Synchronization_and_backup_programs
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/System_backup

were

More full size backups, in comparison to???

think veam can do it, even if it is physical by just adding on an agent. You probably will need another server to run veam though?

Tried acronis. There is an agent for it, but only ever backed up windows servers using it.

debitcardmayhem

kwikbreaks wrote: »

I suspect it's because linux users love to spend hours reconfiguring their boxes after the disk screws up.

Professional users doubtless keep full images of their basic setups which they can squirt onto a disk and swapout the failed one in the server. User data, mysql backups, and stuff such as webroots are handled easily enough.

In fact I don't need the webroot as all my website source is on DropBox and several machines to start with. What I haven't got backed up is all the non-included software installs and configs for things such as nginx php mysql letsencrypt etc.etc.

scripts using rsync or find and cpio, , or tar will do those and easily . or us one of the gui ones in post #2