Re: Guide(s?) to backup philosophies

From	DdB <debianlist@potentially-spam.de-bruyn.de>
Newsgroups	linux.debian.user
Subject	Re: Guide(s?) to backup philosophies
Date	2017-03-19 11:40 +0100
Message-ID	<tmGpH-4hW-5@gated-at.bofh.it> (permalink)
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Am 11.03.2017 um 16:10 schrieb Richard Owlett:
> I've been good about telling others that backups are a good idea.
Hi,
i know i am late to the party. And without knowing any ready made
documentation, let me add a few things out of the top of my head:

 1. Backups saved my mental health on numerous occassions, even while
    still on Windows
 2. Although i came across tools to automate the process, i have never
    accepted having to trust anything to be - or not to be - in control
    of critical data, except for myself
 3. An understanding of how to set up a bootable system (be it from
    backup or new) seems crucial to me, as some understanding of grub +
    initramfs appears to be extremely useful
 4. Linux has every tool necessary on board, a first backup is easy to
    make using (f.i.) systemrescuecd
 5. And logging all the steps done, while doing them, is the first step
    to a scripted solution
 6. Such a log - turning into a script - paired with the corresponding
    restore - is evolving naturally with time and experience...

Here are some lessons, i learned while being involved with backing up:

  * Different kinds of data need to be considered, according to their
    turnaround and usefulness (a.k.a. backup cycle interval). I adhere
    to 3 types today: (os=critical=when needed: on occassion several
    times a day, regular cycle: almost everything else backing up every
    2 weeks currently, and dont care/throw away data, which doesnt stop
    me from backing it up, but more of the fire and forget kind)
  * always log the reason/state of the backup, similar to git, as that
    logfile turns into a valuable resource useable even after years
  * where to backup to? Initially, i was using the machine to backup for
    holding the backup, which is a really bad idea. Today, i am using a
    pluggable external device with several drives configured in a RAID
    setup.
  * In order to save space, a COW (copy-on-write) fs turns out to be
    mega useful. My recommendation being ZFS (at least on the backup
    devices), as that allows keeping several backups/restore points in
    one place using incremental backup.
    Example: OS (uses 4.5 GB) has 20 incremental backups, making up
    around 16.5 GB = 4.5 + 12 for snapshots in total.
  * for some strange reason, i switched to imaging lately (using
    zerofree + compression, loop mount + rsync), and the gain in
    restore-time is mind-blowing, as a simple dd was enough to restore
    one entire snap from a OS. BTW: in the meantime, i switched to using
    ZFS for the real data mountpoints as well
  * The bash scripts used for backup/restore evolved to 9+6K due to my
    habit to make lots of asserts/checks as a safety measure before
    proceeding.

That kind of approach may not be useful to everybody, as it is some
investment into one self's know-how. But you gain flexibility and
creative handling options, like just restoring the exact file(s) of even
just comparing the differences. And after having gone through different
real world scenarios (hardware failures of different kinds) i know how
safe i am!

But for those only interested in a ready made solution: You are going to
run into a major difficulty sooner or later, that hasnt been foreseen.
Hopefully, you'll have 3 Versions ready (original, backup, next-to-last
backup) and find some admin worth trusting and able to handle your
situation manually. :-)

Those are my 2 cents.
DdB (reading only the lists digest, thus not replying directly)

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Guide(s?) to backup philosophies Richard Owlett <rowlett@cloud85.net> - 2017-03-11 16:20 +0100
  Re: Guide(s?) to backup philosophies David Christensen <dpchrist@holgerdanske.com> - 2017-03-11 22:10 +0100
    Re: Guide(s?) to backup philosophies Dan Purgert <dan@djph.net> - 2017-03-13 14:00 +0100
      Re: Guide(s?) to backup philosophies David Christensen <dpchrist@holgerdanske.com> - 2017-03-14 05:00 +0100
        Re: Guide(s?) to backup philosophies Dan Purgert <dan@djph.net> - 2017-03-17 11:50 +0100
          Re: Guide(s?) to backup philosophies Glenn English <ghe2001@gmail.com> - 2017-03-17 19:50 +0100
          Re: Guide(s?) to backup philosophies David Christensen <dpchrist@holgerdanske.com> - 2017-03-18 06:20 +0100
            Re: Guide(s?) to backup philosophies Dan Purgert <dan@djph.net> - 2017-03-22 11:50 +0100
              Re: Guide(s?) to backup philosophies <tomas@tuxteam.de> - 2017-03-22 11:50 +0100
                Re: Guide(s?) to backup philosophies Dan Purgert <dan@djph.net> - 2017-03-22 13:20 +0100
                Re: Guide(s?) to backup philosophies <tomas@tuxteam.de> - 2017-03-22 13:30 +0100
                Re: Guide(s?) to backup philosophies Dan Purgert <dan@djph.net> - 2017-03-23 10:30 +0100
                Re: Guide(s?) to backup philosophies <tomas@tuxteam.de> - 2017-03-23 11:10 +0100
                Re: Guide(s?) to backup philosophies Dan Purgert <dan@djph.net> - 2017-03-23 13:10 +0100
              Re: Guide(s?) to backup philosophies David Christensen <dpchrist@holgerdanske.com> - 2017-03-23 04:00 +0100
                Re: Guide(s?) to backup philosophies Dan Purgert <dan@djph.net> - 2017-03-23 10:40 +0100
                Re: Guide(s?) to backup philosophies David Christensen <dpchrist@holgerdanske.com> - 2017-03-23 20:10 +0100
        Re: should I firewall an open port which isn't used? (was ... Re: Guide(s?) to backup philosophies) Dominik George <nik@naturalnet.de> - 2017-03-31 14:10 +0200
          Re: should I firewall an open port which isn't used? (was ... Re:  Guide(s?) to backup philosophies) Dominik George <nik@naturalnet.de> - 2017-03-31 23:20 +0200
          Re: should I firewall an open port which isn't used? (was ... Re:  Guide(s?) to backup philosophies) Nathan Dorfman <ndorf@rtfm.net> - 2017-04-01 11:00 +0200
        should I firewall an open port which isn't used? (was ... Re:  Guide(s?) to backup philosophies) cbannister@slingshot.co.nz - 2017-03-31 14:10 +0200
          Re: should I firewall an open port which isn't used? (was ... Re:  Guide(s?) to backup philosophies) <tomas@tuxteam.de> - 2017-03-31 14:20 +0200
            Re: should I firewall an open port which isn't used? (was ... Re:  Guide(s?) to backup philosophies) Brian <ad44@cityscape.co.uk> - 2017-03-31 15:20 +0200
              Re: should I firewall an open port which isn't used? (was ... Re:  Guide(s?) to backup philosophies) <tomas@tuxteam.de> - 2017-03-31 15:30 +0200
              Re: should I firewall an open port which isn't used? (was ... Re: Guide(s?) to backup philosophies) Dominik George <nik@naturalnet.de> - 2017-03-31 15:30 +0200
                Re: should I firewall an open port which isn't used? (was ... Re: Guide(s?) to backup philosophies) Dominik George <nik@naturalnet.de> - 2017-03-31 15:50 +0200
      Re: Guide(s?) to backup philosophies Glenn English <ghe2001@gmail.com> - 2017-03-14 19:00 +0100
        Re: Guide(s?) to backup philosophies Dan Ritter <dsr@randomstring.org> - 2017-03-14 19:20 +0100
          Re: Guide(s?) to backup philosophies Miles Fidelman <mfidelman@meetinghouse.net> - 2017-03-14 20:20 +0100
            Re: Guide(s?) to backup philosophies Dan Ritter <dsr@randomstring.org> - 2017-03-14 21:40 +0100
              Re: Guide(s?) to backup philosophies Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca> - 2017-03-15 13:30 +0100
                Re: Guide(s?) to backup philosophies Dan Ritter <dsr@randomstring.org> - 2017-03-15 14:10 +0100
                Re: Guide(s?) to backup philosophies "Martin McCormick" <martin.m@suddenlink.net> - 2017-03-15 14:30 +0100
                Re: Guide(s?) to backup philosophies Jonathan Dowland <jmtd@debian.org> - 2017-03-15 16:40 +0100
                Re: Guide(s?) to backup philosophies Jonathan Dowland <jmtd@debian.org> - 2017-03-15 16:40 +0100
                Re: Guide(s?) to backup philosophies Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca> - 2017-03-15 21:50 +0100
                Re: Guide(s?) to backup philosophies songbird <songbird@anthive.com> - 2017-03-16 23:50 +0100
        Re: Guide(s?) to backup philosophies Miles Fidelman <mfidelman@meetinghouse.net> - 2017-03-14 20:10 +0100
  Re: Guide(s?) to backup philosophies Joe <joe@jretrading.com> - 2017-03-11 23:30 +0100
    Re: Guide(s?) to backup philosophies Jonathan Dowland <jmtd@debian.org> - 2017-03-15 13:30 +0100
  Re: Guide(s?) to backup philosophies Dan Ritter <dsr@randomstring.org> - 2017-03-13 15:20 +0100
    Re: Guide(s?) to backup philosophies David Christensen <dpchrist@holgerdanske.com> - 2017-03-14 05:10 +0100
    Re: Guide(s?) to backup philosophies Richard Owlett <rowlett@cloud85.net> - 2017-03-14 15:50 +0100
  Re: Guide(s?) to backup philosophies Merlin Büge <toni@bluenox07.de> - 2017-03-14 19:50 +0100
  Re: Guide(s?) to backup philosophies DdB <debianlist@potentially-spam.de-bruyn.de> - 2017-03-19 11:40 +0100

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