From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Sun Oct 30 19:23:47 2005 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 1F11116A41F for ; Sun, 30 Oct 2005 19:23:47 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from e.schuele@computer.org) Received: from sccrmhc12.comcast.net (sccrmhc12.comcast.net [204.127.202.56]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id A8E9F43D48 for ; Sun, 30 Oct 2005 19:23:46 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from e.schuele@computer.org) Received: from [192.168.214.215] (c-24-1-232-64.hsd1.tx.comcast.net[24.1.232.64]) by comcast.net (sccrmhc12) with ESMTP id <2005103019225301200do47re>; Sun, 30 Oct 2005 19:23:03 +0000 Message-ID: <43651D7B.6000005@computer.org> Date: Sun, 30 Oct 2005 13:22:35 -0600 From: Eric Schuele User-Agent: Mozilla Thunderbird 1.0.7 (X11/20050930) X-Accept-Language: en-us, en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Martin Hepworth References: <20051030134902.GG2911@beastie.creo.hu> <72cf361e0510300958w33bf3u3f754e68794b858d@mail.gmail.com> In-Reply-To: <72cf361e0510300958w33bf3u3f754e68794b858d@mail.gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: Csaba Henk , freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: backup strategies X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sun, 30 Oct 2005 19:23:47 -0000 Martin Hepworth wrote: > Hi > > On 10/30/05, Csaba Henk wrote: > >>Hi! >> >>We plan to set up a backup server. >> >>While the basic backup procedure is clear -- use some archiving utility >>like dump, tar, or cpio and send data to the backup server via ssh or a >>network mount -- there are many details which are unclear for me. >> >>The two biggest problems are: >> >>1) What parts are to be backed up? If I backup the whole system, the >>backup disk will get full soon. You could say it's not necessary, and >>that only the valueable data should be backed up (and not those parts >>which are easy to re-create by means of a new installation). But, say, >>someone breaks into the machince. How could I reliably find out the >>Achilles heel she used to get in if I don't have a complete system >>backup? Or if she has a backdoor left behind? > > > > Depends on what the risk you trying to mitigate with backup. Think of the > problems and how you would get around them. There are file consistency utils > you can run to see if root-kits etc have been installed. > > 2) How to schedule backups? I guess services should stop for the backup > >>period as the backup could be unreliable or inconsistent if disk/file >>writes were going on during backup. It sounds as if I should drop to >>single user mode. Or is there a less drastic approach? And if I dropped >>to single user mode, I would lose control over the box for that period, >>as the box is accessed via ssh and sshd is also stopped in single user >>mode -- this sounds scary... > > > > With FreeBSD 5.x and later you can snapshop the filesystem then use a > special 'dump' to backup that snapshot to the backup machine. > dump(8) will create a snapshot of a live filesystem, dump the snapshot and then remove the snapshot, if given the correct flags ('-L'). > have a look at amanda and bacula for how they handle this and do some > research on different backup strategies and their risks and benfits wrt to > Unix systems - theres lots out there.. > > -- > Martin > > > TYA. > >>-- >>Csaba Henk >> >>My sense of humour is often too subtle to cope with getting smileyd. >>Please don't take it personal. >>_______________________________________________ >>freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list >>http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions >>To unsubscribe, send any mail to " >>freebsd-questions-unsubscribe@freebsd.org" >> > > _______________________________________________ > freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list > http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions > To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-questions-unsubscribe@freebsd.org" > -- Regards, Eric