I want to backup my Linux system (with rsync).
What is recommended to backup and what not?

Of cause, all the personal stuff should be saved but what about the "normal" system
stuff of the OS?

Which of the files, dirs and settings should be backuped?

And the same question on what NOT to backup? Is there more to exclude than /proc?

Matthew

On 2008-05-06, Matthew Lincoln wrote:

> I want to backup my Linux system (with rsync).
> What is recommended to backup and what not?
>
> Of cause, all the personal stuff should be saved but what about the "normal" system
> stuff of the OS?
>
> Which of the files, dirs and settings should be backuped?

Definitely /etc, or at least the bits of it that you've customized.


--
Is one language more powerful than another? Compare, for example,
English with Yiddish. Sure, it's hard to describe a carburetor in
Yiddish, but try describing a schlemiel in English. (Stoll 1995)

On May 7, 1:42 pm, Adam Funk <a24...@ducksburg.com> wrote:
> On 2008-05-06, Matthew Lincoln wrote:
>
> > I want to backup my Linux system (with rsync).
> > What is recommended to backup and what not?
>
> > Of cause, all the personal stuff should be saved but what about the "normal" system
> > stuff of the OS?
>
> > Which of the files, dirs and settings should be backuped?
>
> Definitely /etc, or at least the bits of it that you've customized.

And much more. Here some examples from a RedHat box:
* /usr/local if you installed something manually from source.
* /var/log
* /var/lib examples:
* /var/lib/imap and /var/spool/imap if you have an imap server
* /var/lib/mailman if you are using mailman
* /var/lib/mysql databases
* /var/www
I would suggest you to backup everything (excluding temporary stuff
like /tmp) or to be very careful.

Matteo

On 2008-05-07, Teo <matteo.corti@gmail.com> wrote:
> On May 7, 1:42 pm, Adam Funk <a24...@ducksburg.com> wrote:
>> On 2008-05-06, Matthew Lincoln wrote:
>>
>> > I want to backup my Linux system (with rsync).
>> > What is recommended to backup and what not?
>>
>> > Of cause, all the personal stuff should be saved but what about the "normal" system
>> > stuff of the OS?
>>
>> > Which of the files, dirs and settings should be backuped?
>>
>> Definitely /etc, or at least the bits of it that you've customized.
>
> And much more. Here some examples from a RedHat box:
> * /usr/local if you installed something manually from source.
> * /var/log
> * /var/lib examples:
> * /var/lib/imap and /var/spool/imap if you have an imap server
> * /var/lib/mailman if you are using mailman
> * /var/lib/mysql databases
> * /var/www
> I would suggest you to backup everything (excluding temporary stuff
> like /tmp) or to be very careful.
>
I agree. Storage is cheap, back it all up. Greatly simplifies recreating
the system, should you need to.

--
Christopher Mattern

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Adam Funk wrote:
> On 2008-05-06, Matthew Lincoln wrote:
>
>> I want to backup my Linux system (with rsync).
>> What is recommended to backup and what not?
>>
>> Of cause, all the personal stuff should be saved but what about the "normal" system
>> stuff of the OS?
>>
>> Which of the files, dirs and settings should be backuped?
>
> Definitely /etc, or at least the bits of it that you've customized.
>
>
Since the OS is usually the smaller part of any working system, I tend
to back up teh whole root an /usr as far as tar will let me (/proc /dev
and /sys excepted) and teh /var and /home ares onto a different DVD.


That gives me two options: data recovery, and system recovery...

On May 6, 12:10 pm, kmlincoln100@hotmail.com (Matthew Lincoln) wrote:
> Subject: What to backup on a Linux system an what not?
^^^^^^^^
> I want to backup my Linux system (with rsync).
> What is recommended to backup and what not?
^^^^^^^^
> Of cause, all the personal stuff should be saved but what about the "normal" system
> stuff of the OS?
> Which of the files, dirs and settings should be backuped?
> And the same question on what NOT to backup? Is there more to exclude than /proc?

Yes, be sure to also backup the what not ... it may be quite
important:
$ df -k
Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/hda1 51200 10240 40960 20% /
/dev/hda2 805306368 797253304 80530636 99% /what_not
$

But seriously, what ought to be backed up, how, and how often, is best
answered in the context of the answers to the questions:
What are the backup objectives? E.g. how fast and painless of a
rebuild/restore is desired, vs. pain, time, loss, and not consuming
backup resources (media, time, bandwidth, etc.)
Got off-sites?
Got meta-data backed up too? (e.g. at least some basic hardware and
disk configuration information? - e.g. if you're handed a pile of
tapes
or disks and told "restore these" - what other information is going to
be needed?)
Got redundancy? Some backups (at least statistically) *will* fail
when
one goes to do a restore. Got reasonable number of extra copies
distributed appropriately among multiple locations (to also cover
off-site requirements)? Are the backups tested periodically - at
least
statistical sampling - to ensure the backups are at least as reliable
as one believes them to be? With backups of multiple systems that are
rather to quite similar, are there efficiencies to be safely gained by
not making excessive backup copies of identical data?
Periodically test doing restore - both selective restore (file,
directory, file system, disk) - and whole system restore. Find and
correct any gaps in the backup/restore procedure before they turn into
critical uncorrectable gaps.

Once the requirements are better understood, it's then easier to
address what should (and possibly shouldn't) be backed up, and how
(and
when, and to where, etc.).

A fairly good strategy is generally, backup everything, do it in an
automated scheduled fashion, do rotations with off-site backups, be
sure the meta-data is also backed up (e.g. of the surviving backup
media, where is it, what's on it, and in what format), and test
periodically. In most cases, more backups and backup media is much
cheaper than losses of critical data and time.

Other random bits:
One probably doesn't need to backup volatile file systems, e.g.
/dev/shm and possibly /tmp, but one may want to back them up anyway,
and they ought to be backed up (e.g. possibly /tmp) if they're
non-volatile. Should also skip virtual filesystems such as /proc.