[CentOS] backup to disk

Mon Mar 31 15:44:40 UTC 2008
Ray Leventhal <centos at swhi.net>

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