Re: [Dump-users] backup methodologies

[Antonios C. <an...@it...>]

Jeffrey Ross wrote:
> I'm looking to back up my personal machine, obviously the system file 
> systems do not change much ( / /var /usr) however the user filesystem 
> (/home) can have a handfull of small changes daily.
> 
> What tape schedule, dump level rotation do you use, how would you 
> recommend I go about figuring out what would work well for me?
> 
> This is probably a FAQ question....

No, this is not a FAQ; in fact, personal machines are harder to backup,
because:

  (a) Backup media is usually of very low capacity, such as CD or DVD.

  (b) Designing a backup plan is not trivial. While working for a month
      or so to design the backup plan for a server or a cluster of
      servers is reasonable, you obviously won't spend that much time
      for a personal machine. In other words, personal machines don't
      have enough human resources (unless backup somehow fascinates you
      and you want to have fun with it :-)

Your schedule will depend on the capacity of your media.

I'm attaching the script I was using at home until recently to backup my
home machine on CD. You run it like this:
  backup 0   (performs a full backup)
  backup 1   (performs a level 1 backup)
etc.

Full backup is always written on a new CD, whereas higher level backups
always append a session to an existing CD. When I go out of CD space, I
start a new CD with a full backup again.

In /etc/backup/excludes you specify directories that should not be
backed up. These should be anything useless or whatever the OS can
easily reinstall or recreate, namely /tmp, /var/tmp, /var/cache, and
most directories under /usr except /usr/local. I also have some
directories in my home directory that are too large (and relatively easy
to recreate) to backup.

There's no schedule; you run it whenever you remember it. If you like
it, you'll certainly have to modify it so that it suits your needs.

I'm not using it any more, because I now use "unison" to synchronize my
important files with the file server at work, which is saved every night
on tape.