On Wed, 15 Sep 2004 14:14:08 -0500, Eli Carter <eli.carter@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
Use rdiff-backup (mentioned in other comments). Set up some simple policy on how long to keep which backups. Provide a simple 'restore lost file from backup' GUI (and commandline) utilities.
The "simple" policy I would advocate would be to keep incremental backups on this schedule: One per day for the last week. One per week for the last month[1] One per month for the last N months, where N <= 14 [2], and have N automatically fluctuate as disk space on the server is consumed and freed. (May warn the user when it is about to be decreased.) [1] Define "month" to mean "4 weeks" for simplicity. [2] For a year, N = 52/4 = 13, and add one so you can get last April's tax return you inadvertantly deleted.
rdiff-backup doesn't allow for that finegrained of a policy currently. removing of old incrementals is only exposed with a "remove later than this point" option. You'd have to hook into current rdiff-backup development discussions about the likelyhood of that feature being expanded to allow for culling of increments in dateranges while leaving some. For example i run rdiff-backup nightly, and then tell it to remove increments older than 1 month old. There is no way for me to tell it things like "remove everything older than 1 month except for 1 increment as close to the start of each month as possible" -jef"rdiff-backup --make-me-a-sandwich"spaleta
Ah, I thought it would support that. Oh well. So a simple policy of "keep a month's worth of incrementals" would be a good start.
In my usage of rdiff-backup, I'm still at the "try to make rdiff-backup a habit" stage. :/
Eli --------------------. "If it ain't broke now, Eli Carter \ it will be soon." -- crypto-gram eli.carter(a)inet.com `-------------------------------------------------
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