[clug] Neat Backup Solutions for desktops...

[Randall Crook]

I have a centralized backup solution.

Straight forward.

1. A script that rsync's /etc, /var and /home from all the computers in 
my home (ubuntu, OSX or Solaris) to a location on a central box (my 
file/print server). It is in cron and runs every night. It first checks 
to see if the machine is on then rsync's, so as long as the PC's are 
turned on at least some nights in the month it will be backed up.

2. Once a week the central rsync repository and the important 
direstories on the file/print server as well as one or two windows 
shares on my media center, are tar'd onto a 640 GB USB drive. I have it 
formatted as VFAT for portability purposes. This will allow my to 
restore files from the tar ball on any system, and having it as a tar 
ball allows my to preserve file permissions and ownership.

It's not saphisticated and no where near efficient, but what it is, is 
simple and effective. It gives me a backup of everything I need in case 
of a disaster.  The two scripts that do the work are only a small but 
they work.

I did think about amanda and I have looked at a bunch of other OSS 
packages, but it my home PC's, I have hard copies of all my really 
important documents etc, and the backup system I have knocked up, 
duplicates anything electronic I have so i have mitigated most of the 
rest of the risk to a level I can except. What else do I need?.

Randall.


On 6/12/09 3:42 PM, steve jenkin wrote:
> A friend was enthusing recently about his OS/X system and "Time
> Machine". This ZDnet piece on "Google Backup" prompted a thought.
> <http://blogs.zdnet.com/perlow/?p=11720>
>
> Like many 'experienced' admins/Unix Users, I take backup/restores
> seriously on servers I manage for others but have poor or no solutions
> for my desktops...
> The sort of solution "Time Machine" provided for my friend.
>
> Recently I played with DRBD at work and thought "this'd be great to
> mirror my work desktop root&  home filesystems to another m/c".
>
> I've not done that because it didn't seem to be common usage...
>
> CLUG is a broad church with a bunch of talented individuals with
> many/diverse interesting solutions.
>
> Anyone care to contribute what they do?
> Automatic is good.
> Using 'snapshots' of any sort gets bonus points :-)
>
>
> cheers
> s
>