On Thu, Oct 20, 2011 at 9:52 AM, ken gebser@mousecar.com wrote:
Though I've worked with enterprise systems, I'm not familiar with FOOS backup software. Which of those recommended would allow me to backup a system while users are active on it? If it matters the system uses LVM. I'd also like to be able to avoid needing the network if possible. That is, I'd plug in a disk into a USB port and backup the system onto that... again, while the system is live.
It is rare for linux applications to lock files, so almost all backup tools will work on an active system, catching the files in whatever state happens to appear in the filesystem. However, database-type applications will have their own requirements to preserve consistency across tables in the snapshot.
Tar/dump/cpio/rsync are all good for copying data. If you want something that can completely reconstruct your system, look at http://rear.sourceforge.net/ (also in EPEL) which should meet you need exactly. But, anytime someone mentions backups, I like to plug backuppc. It does use the network (and another machine) and it won't restore a bootable disk, but it generally takes care of itself and makes sure you always have backup copies with little effort. (http://backuppc.sourceforge.net/ and EPEL).