[CentOS] CentOS Server Backup Options

[Mark LaPierre]

On 03/11/2012 08:12 PM, Scott Walker wrote:
> What do you guys recommend for backing up a small CentOS server in a
> business environment.  It will have (3) 300gb drives in a raid 5 array but I
> don't anticipate more than about 25gb of data that needs to be backed up
> each night.
> I want a lot of backups with a rotation scheme that included daily, weekly,
> and monthly copies.  I want the daily copies of the data kept until the next
> week, and the weekly copy being kept for four weeks, and the monthly copies
> being kept for a year.
>
> The vendor is recommending a RD1000 Removable Disk device.  This looks like
> it has great specs.  Each cartridge holds 160gb (non-compressed) and the
> drive costs about $420 but seems that with each removable cartridge costing
> $128, we may be limited to how many cartridges we could have, thus perhaps
> not retaining backup instances as long as I like.
>
> I asked about a HP DAT160 tape drive.  Each tape holds 160gb
> (non-compressed) and the drive costs about $730, and each tape only costs
> about $24, so it would be economical to have lots of backup instances saved
> for a long period of time.
>
> I have been using tape and the backup rotation scheme mentioned above for
> over 20 years.  The vendor is telling me they don't recommend tape drives
> anymore and all of their customers are using removable hard drive for local
> backups.  Am I missing something?  My instincts tell me the tape drive is
> the right solution for a system with a small amount of data, where the
> system is used only from 8am - 5pm (so backup speed is not critical) and
> where we want to save backup instances for a long time before overwriting
> them.
>
> Any input would be welcomed.
>
>

What do you consider to be a "long time" to keep backups on hand?

Tape, and tape drives, have a bad reputation.  They are difficult and 
time consuming to verify.

I run my backups nightly to a hard drive using rsync.  I use a directory 
named by the day of the week.  I cycle through the seven daily 
directories until the 1st of the month when I run a complete backup to 
an monthly directory.  Then for the next seven days I wipe the daily 
directories and start the cycle over again.

A couple of minor variations to this plan should work for you.  I don't 
know what your network configuration looks like so this may not apply to 
you.

Here's a peek at the logic I use.

# BUILD DATE STAMP
Date=`date +%Y%m%d`
echo "Date= \"$Date\""

# Rev. 5.6 start
Day=`date +%a`
echo "Day= \"$Day\""

DayNum=`date +%d` # Rev. 7.0

# IF THIS IS A SUNDAY USE THE CALANDAR DATE
if [ "$Day" == "Sun" ];then
         Day="$Date"
else
         # IF THIS IS THE 1ST OF THE MONTH USE THE CALANDAR DATE
         if [ "$DayNum" == "01" ];then
                 Day="$Date"
         fi
fi

# USE THE DAY OF THE WEEK, EXCEPT FOR SUNDAY AND THE 1ST OF THE MONTH 
WHICH IS HANDLED ABOVE, AS THE DIRECTORY NAME
Date="$Day"

# Rev. 5.6 end

# REMOVE PREVIOUS $Date DIRECTORY IF THIS IS THE FIRST USE THIS MONTH
# Rev. 7.0 ENTIRE CASE STATEMENT ADDED
case $DayNum in
     02)
         echo "Removing /home/homebu/$Date directory"
         rm -rf /home/homebu/$Date
         ;;
     03)
         echo "Removing /home/homebu/$Date directory"
         rm -rf /home/homebu/$Date
         ;;
     04)
         echo "Removing /home/homebu/$Date directory"
         rm -rf /home/homebu/$Date
         ;;
     05)
         echo "Removing /home/homebu/$Date directory"
         rm -rf /home/homebu/$Date
         ;;
     06)
         echo "Removing /home/homebu/$Date directory"
         rm -rf /home/homebu/$Date
         ;;
     07)
         echo "Removing /home/homebu/$Date directory"
         rm -rf /home/homebu/$Date
         ;;
      *)
         echo "Old $Date directory not deleted"
         ;;
esac

# TRANSER FILES



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