Ned Slider wrote:
Ray Leventhal wrote:
I'm looking for common practices for backing up user data to disk.
My user data is all in /home. I'm also interested in what folks are
doing for things backing up os and configs.
<snip>
In a mixed Linux/Windows environment, I deployed a Linux backup server
and mounted users data directories on the backup server using smb/cifs
and then did a "local" rsync of the mounted dirs to the backup dir
(easy to run as a cron job each night). Further backups may then be
written to removable storage for off site storage or additional disks
in case of drive failure. I like rsync for backing up changing data
sets such as users data.
To negate the risks/downtime associated with hard drive failure, I
cloned the original OS setup using dd to spare HDs and locked them in
the safe. Primary drive failure would require replacement of the
drives (and a system update) and restoring data from the latest
backups, although there's no reason one couldn't run 2 near identical
backup servers side by side if the hardware is available.
There are simply so many different ways one could implement a backup
strategy depending on hardware available, what software you're
comfortable with, whether you want to script your own or use a backup
package, the type of data you need to back up etc. The *important*
thing is that you're comfortable with your backup procedure, it meets
your needs, it's performed regularly, it's tested and it works.
Hi Ned,
Thanks for the thoughtful reply. I've cloned the OS drive already and
it is safely locked away. We're an entirely off-internet system, so
updates aren't even a problem. The issue is the user data and with what
you and others have written, I'm considering doing a local rsync to a
second set of mirrored drives already in the box (but as of now disused).
Kind regards,
-Ray
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