[PLUG] Backups <again>

[Michael M. Moore]

On Fri, 2007-11-09 at 21:42 -0800, John Jason Jordan wrote:

> My backup requirements are not the same as most Linux users. I create new data that I don't want to lose maybe once a week, sometimes less often. I might be working on a homework project in OOo and need to back it up. Otherwise, the only things I have to back up are a few e-mails, none of which are critical. So a daily or continuous rsync to a network drive is ridiculous overkill. What I'd like to do is create a total mirror of my hard drive once a month or so, and also once a month or so a total backup of my home folder. In between I'd like to be able to do click, click, click and make an incremental backup of ~/ to a DVD drive every once in a while after I have created new data that I don't want to lose. Does anyone have any suggestions? Are there other Linux desktop users out there that have the same needs?
> [rant_mode:off]


Similar, I guess, but probably different enough that what I do might not
work for you.  I backup once a week to an external USB drive using
rdiff-backup.  My two internal hard drives are 160GB each; my external
USB drive is 320GB.  The math works nicely.  However, I don't really
back up the entire contents of my internal drives, just /home, some
other directories I keep user data on, and /usr/local.  Everything else
I could recreate easily if I need to.  I just back up the stuff I don't
want to have to recreate or re-obtain (in the case of downloads).

I keep it simple.  I don't use cron or any automatic scheduler.  I do it
usually on Sundays, sometimes on Saturdays depending upon the weekend.
The rest of the week my USB hard drive sits unplugged and turned off,
collecting dust.  Backups are the only thing I use it for.  I thought it
was a small price to pay for a little peace of mind.

I like rdiff-backup because its basic usage is very simple, even though
it's a command-line app.  Just:

$ rdiff-backup /home/mcubed /media/disk/backup_home/

(where the first item is what you want to back up, aka the "source"; the
second is where you want the backup to be written, aka the "target.")

It only writes data that has changed since the previous week's backup,
and it keeps the backups incrementally.  The only other maintenance
thing I have to do is remove old backup archives I know I won't need
anymore.  If I haven't gone back to something that I deleted more than
two months ago or to a version of something that had changed more than
two months ago, it's very likely I'll never need to, so I use 2 months
as my cut-off.  Obviously, everybody has different needs on this score.
You can keep whatever you want to keep as far back as you have the
storage space for.

The man page for rdiff-backup is rather long and complicated looking,
but that's because it can do much fancier things than I need it to do.
Like I said, basic usage is dead easy.

That doesn't address your DVD issue at all, but I don't write such
things so that's a problem I haven't had to face myself.

Good luck!


-- 
Michael M. ++ Portland, OR ++ USA
"No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions
of absolute reality; even larks and katydids are supposed, by some, to
dream." --S. Jackson