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Ray Leventhal wrote:

Thanks for the reply and link. I'm looking this over right now.

If you look to use rsnapshot, there's a guide on the CentOS wiki.

http://wiki.centos.org/HowTos/RsnapshotBackups

Regards, Max

Ned Slider wrote:

Ray Leventhal wrote:

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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.

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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

Les Mikesell wrote:

Ray Leventhal wrote:

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...

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).

Keep in mind that certain hardware, software, or operator errors (or a building disaster) can wipe out all of the disks at once. A safer approach might be to rsync to external disks that you rotate offsite or to rsync over the network to a different location.

A point I was just discussing with some folks here. Thanks, Les.