Backing up is the process of making copies (a backup) of data which may be used to restore the original after a data loss event.
25
votes
9answers
4k views
Easy incremental backups to an external hard drive
For a while I used Dirvish to do incremental backups of my machines, but it is slightly cumbersome to configure, and if you do not carry a copy of your configuration it can be hard to reproduce ...
19
votes
9answers
856 views
How to keep track of changes in /etc/
I would like to keep track of changes in /etc/
Basically I'd like to know if a file was changed, by yum update or by a user and roll it back if I don't like the chage.
I thought of using a VCS like ...
18
votes
7answers
11k views
Rsync filter: copying one pattern only
I am trying to create a directory that will house all and only my PDFs compiled from LaTeX. I like keeping each project in a separate folder, all housed in a big folder called LaTeX. So I tried ...
11
votes
7answers
4k views
What to use to backup files, preserving ACLs?
When using the tar utility to store files in backups one loses the extended ACLs.
Is there some commonly used and not hackish solution (like: create a script that will recrate the ACLs from scratch) ...
10
votes
4answers
1k views
Rock-stable filesystem for large files (backups) for linux
What filesystem would be best for backups? I'm interested primary in stability (especially uncorruptability of files during hard reboots etc.) but how efficiently it handles large (>5GB) files is also ...
8
votes
4answers
365 views
rolling diffs for storage of highly similar files?
At work we do a nightly dump of our mysql databases. From day to day, I would guestimate that close to 90-95% of the data is duplicate, increasing as time goes on. ( Heck at this point some are ...
8
votes
2answers
1k views
Fastest way combine many files into one (tar czf is too slow)
Currently I'm running tar czf to combine backup files. The files are in a specific directory.
But the number of files is growing. Using tzr czf takes too much time (more than 20 minutes and ...
8
votes
2answers
2k views
Clear unused space with zeros (ext3,ext4)
How to clear unused space with zeros ? (ext3,ext4)
I'm looking for something smarter than
cat /dev/zero > /mnt/X/big_zero ; sync; rm /mnt/X/big_zero
Like FSArchiver is looking for "used space" ...
8
votes
2answers
229 views
How to list files and folders that are not maintained by any DEB package
I am in the process of moving my files from one Debian machine to another so that I can use the old machine for a different purpose. I do not want to miss any file because I will be formatting the ...
8
votes
1answer
2k views
How to create a read-only snapshot in LVM, and then rollback to it after some work?
What are the commands to use in LVM in case I want to:
create a read-only snapshot of a volume;
(do some experiments in the volume);
and then rollback the volume to the snapshot?
7
votes
3answers
3k views
Give user permissions to all files and folders
I want to have a user who has access to all the files and folders on the system. This is for the purpose of using RSYNC on a local machine to backup a remote machine.
At the moment we are using the ...
7
votes
3answers
5k views
Is it possible to mount a gzip compressed dd image on the fly?
I like create an image backup for the first time I'm backing up a system. After this first time I use rsync to do incremental backups.
My usual image backup is as follows:
Mount and zero out the ...
7
votes
7answers
2k views
Splitting large directory tree into specified-size chunks?
I have a directory tree that I would like to back up to optical disks. Unfortunately, it exceeds the size of any one disk (it's about 60GB). I am looking for a script that would split this tree into ...
7
votes
2answers
938 views
real time backup if file changed?
Are there any linux/unix console applications similar to Yadis that would allow me to:
be set up from the console
backup multiple directories
backup / sync in real time after the files (text files) ...
7
votes
2answers
849 views
How to create a snapshot in btrfs, and then rollback to it after some work?
What are the commands to use in btrfs in case I want to:
create a (read-only) snapshot of a volume;
(do some experiments in the volume);
and then rollback the volume to the snapshot?
6
votes
3answers
637 views
How to run a command when a directory's contents are updated?
There is a directory A whose contents are changed frequently by other people.
I have made a personal directory B where I keep all the files that have ever been in A.
Currently I just occasionally ...
6
votes
2answers
205 views
Back up mysql server
I want to backup all databases, users and etc on our mysql sever.
I have come across the command mysqldump and believe I can use it like this? (Trying to backup a REMOTE server to our LOCAL machine)
...
6
votes
4answers
1k views
What directories do I need to back up?
What are the directories one should back up, in order to have a backup of all user-generated files?
From a vanilla debian install, I can do enough apt to get the packages that I want. So if I don't ...
6
votes
5answers
911 views
force copying a corrupted home directory
I have a home directory in a disk that has a lot of corrupted files. I am trying to save most files as possible. I am trying to create a backup of my home directory on an external drive using
tar ...
6
votes
3answers
1k views
How to create a read-only snapshot in btrfs?
As far as I understand, the snapshots made by btrfs subvolume snapshot are writable by default and are visible at a certain path under the mountpoint of your btrfs volume.
How to setup the system so ...
6
votes
1answer
187 views
Backing up and restoring a system user account
How would I go about completely backing up a user account and restoring it on a new system? The Home directory is just 'copy-and-paste'. But then what about things like the account password; and its ...
5
votes
3answers
381 views
Resume interrupted copying process
How to resume securely and reliably process of copying file $A into backup location $B done with pv "$A" > "$B" or cat "$A" > "$B" ?
(let's assume file $A is very big, e.g. LVM2 snapshot file)
...
5
votes
4answers
1k views
How do I create Restore Points in Arch Linux (or Linux in general)?
I am relatively new to Arch Linux and I really like its rolling-release concept. Now what I want to know is that before I do a system update via pacman -Syu, I want to create a restore point so that ...
5
votes
2answers
393 views
Should I be backing up my SSH host keys?
In my automated backups, I'm not sure if I should be doing this. If the hard drive fails or if I wipe the hard disk and start over, what will be the effect of starting with a new SSH host key to my ...
5
votes
2answers
2k views
Can I automate tar's multi-volume-feature?
Ok, so I've just had a read through this page after a way to improve my current backup solution on my Debian server. Tar seems to be offering a quite nice multi-volume feature, although when I try it ...
5
votes
2answers
579 views
Run Script once a day with systemd
I want to run a backup script 10 minutes after booting up my machine but only once a day. Is it possible to build up such scenarios with systemd?
5
votes
2answers
3k views
root user denied access to .gvfs in rsnapshot?
I was running rsnapshot as root and I got the following error. Why would this happen? what is .gvfs?
rsnapshot weekly slave-iv
...
5
votes
1answer
412 views
How to create a list of all applications which were manually installed?
I use Fedora and I'd like to have all the package names in a list, but only the ones I installed myself, not the default ones.
5
votes
2answers
3k views
Backup or snaphot tool for ext4
I'm looking for a backup tool for ext4, which can take a copy from a running FS like /var with no collisions in system after recover such FS. I know BSD dump has an '-L' option, which tells him to ...
5
votes
1answer
2k views
NTFS under linux
I'm having some doubts about how to install and allow linux to correctly read/write to a NTFS formated harddrive used as backup of various machines (windows included, that's how I need NTFS).
For now ...
5
votes
2answers
582 views
How to create a snapshot of a physical disk?
I have Windows 7 installed on one of my disks. I want to boot this Windows system in my Xen HVM, but I do not want the changes to be permanent. So I want to create a snapshot of my Windows 7 ...
5
votes
3answers
4k views
Howto read SMS stored on a SIM card?
I have an old phone with a telephone card (SIM card) inside. The telephone has an infrared interface on the side.
I want to read out my contacts and stored SMS messages from the phone, either via ...
5
votes
1answer
142 views
How to back up initial state of external backup drive?
I've picked up an HP Simplesave external drive. It comes with some fancy software that is of no use to me because I don't use Windows. Like many current consumer-targeted backup drives, the backup ...
4
votes
2answers
338 views
Rip an audio CD 1:1
Is there a way to rip an audio CD to an ISO9660 file? I've tried simple things like dd in the past and it hasn't worked. I'd like to essentially have a mirror image of exactly what's on the disk, not ...
4
votes
1answer
71 views
Can I exclude /run from my backup scheme?
I have written a rsync-based system backup for my Linux system. The aim is to be able to redeploy the system entirely from the saves, so I don't only backup homedirs. I have excluded a few top-level ...
4
votes
3answers
3k views
How can i check that a remote computer is online for ssh / script acess?
i'm writting a script that will backup data from my laptop to an ubuntu server.
to do so, i'm looking for a (ba)sh command to test if the server is available before starting the backup. something like ...
4
votes
3answers
104 views
Is it possible to have more than just one backup when editing text files?
Gedit and medit are two text editors that I know of that allow me to save a backup. So, if I create a file called temp.txt the next time I edit it and then save it, I'll have a backup called ...
4
votes
3answers
621 views
Performing accurate snapshot and incremental backups to a remote server
I have a few Ubuntu (and potentially RHEL) servers I'd like to back up to a central backup server (via rsh/SSH). I'd like to do both snapshot and incremental backups. The goal is that if one of the ...
4
votes
4answers
724 views
Best way to make encrypted backups while preserving permissions to a windows file system
For my home network I wanted to buy a NAS which supports disk encryption and NFS since it is important for me that the backup is encrypted but also that it preserves owner, groups and permissions ...
4
votes
4answers
367 views
How can I move the entire OS to a different server?
I want to install RhodeCode on a test server at work. However, the internet access is restricted for that server, and RhodeCode has a lot of dependencies (I don't even have Python on that server). So ...
4
votes
3answers
922 views
How store in a variable a file list that includes the backslash when needed?
Main question:
I am writing a script to perform a backup. I make a list of files in the following way:
LISTOFFILES=$(find ~ \( -name '*.[pP][dD][fF]' -o -name '*.[oO][dD][tT]' \))
The variable ...
4
votes
5answers
2k views
Backup whole hard disk Linux
I am looking for a method to backup a whole disk in case something is screwed up...
I don't even know what to install on some special devices of the server, and every time it is not the same.
...
4
votes
2answers
78 views
backup list of installed packages
I want to reinstall my linux system (specifically linux mint). I have kept important data elsewhere, so I can safely remove everything.
However, I want to do the following:
save the list of ...
4
votes
1answer
496 views
Automated incremental backups to an external drive
Background
A client needs an automated backup solution to an external drive (to be taken offsite weekly). I'd typically suggest rsnapshot (or perhaps rolling out a custom rsync script), but this ...
4
votes
3answers
927 views
Migrating a Virtualbox virtual machine into a physical dual-boot system
I'm running a Linux Mint 12 virtual machine in Virtualbox. I would like to move it into a dual-boot setup with my Windows 7 installation. I have lot of settings in there, and apps installed, and my ...
4
votes
1answer
393 views
How can i dump /tmp/files in CentOS to Dropbox using crontab?
How can i dump files from my CentOS box to Dropbox account? As regular nightly backup task.
4
votes
1answer
216 views
Is it worth using vdmfec for backups to external SATA/IDE hard drives?
I have some SATA/IDE hard drive enclosures that I use for backups. The drives for formatted with VFAT, since I need to be able to share them with Windows and OS/X machines.
The backup scripts pipe ...
4
votes
2answers
1k views
rsync-like tool that supports compression and maintains hardlinks?
I use an rsync-based backup scheme to maintain daily (and soon weekly and monthly as well) "snapshots" of my file server, using rsync's link-dest feature to store hardlinks between the snapshots for ...
4
votes
1answer
269 views
How to clone btrfs filesystem into different medium preserving snapshots' sharing data
I have decided to give btrfs raid capabilities a try. I set up a btrfs with
sudo mkfs.btrfs -m raid10 -d raid10 /dev/sda9 /dev/sdb9 /dev/sdc9 /dev/sdd9
Now I want to clone my existing btrfs ...
4
votes
2answers
421 views
Scp doesn't work in cron
Yeah, I know it's classic. I've googled it all around, but still it doesn't work. I have the following script:
#First go to SVN repo folder
cd $svnrepos
# Just make sure we have write access to ...
