From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Wed May 16 20:55:06 2007 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [69.147.83.52]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id CD75E16A402 for ; Wed, 16 May 2007 20:55:06 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from rsmith@xs4all.nl) Received: from smtp-vbr12.xs4all.nl (smtp-vbr12.xs4all.nl [194.109.24.32]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 66CE813C469 for ; Wed, 16 May 2007 20:55:06 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from rsmith@xs4all.nl) Received: from slackbox.xs4all.nl (slackbox.xs4all.nl [213.84.242.160]) by smtp-vbr12.xs4all.nl (8.13.8/8.13.8) with ESMTP id l4GKt4i7018925; Wed, 16 May 2007 22:55:05 +0200 (CEST) (envelope-from rsmith@xs4all.nl) Received: by slackbox.xs4all.nl (Postfix, from userid 1001) id 95978B82C; Wed, 16 May 2007 22:55:04 +0200 (CEST) Date: Wed, 16 May 2007 22:55:04 +0200 From: Roland Smith To: Paul Schmehl , FreeBSD Questions Message-ID: <20070516205504.GD97410@slackbox.xs4all.nl> Mail-Followup-To: Paul Schmehl , FreeBSD Questions References: <437646E3279CED649940FB48@utd59514.utdallas.edu> <20070516202735.GB97410@slackbox.xs4all.nl> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/signed; micalg=pgp-sha1; protocol="application/pgp-signature"; boundary="zjcmjzIkjQU2rmur" Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <20070516202735.GB97410@slackbox.xs4all.nl> X-GPG-Fingerprint: 1A2B 477F 9970 BA3C 2914 B7CE 1277 EFB0 C321 A725 X-GPG-Key: http://www.xs4all.nl/~rsmith/pubkey.txt X-GPG-Notice: If this message is not signed, don't assume I sent it! User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.15 (2007-04-06) X-Virus-Scanned: by XS4ALL Virus Scanner Cc: Subject: Re: Best remote backup method? 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: Wed, 16 May 2007 20:55:06 -0000 --zjcmjzIkjQU2rmur Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable On Wed, May 16, 2007 at 10:27:35PM +0200, Roland Smith wrote: > On Wed, May 16, 2007 at 01:38:13PM -0500, Paul Schmehl wrote: > > I'm presently backing up two servers in a remote location to a usb dri= ve=20 > > located elsewhere by using rsync over ssh (all three are FreeBSD boxes= =2E)=20 > > After the recent discussion about dump, I'm wondering if I would gain= =20 > > anything by using dump rather than rsync. Has anyone used both? Any= =20 > > thoughts as to which is "better" and why? > >=20 > > The rsync command I use is: > > rsync -avz ${LOCALDIR} -e "ssh -i ${KEY}" ${REMOTEHOST}:${REMOTEDIR} >=20 > With dumps it is easier to keep different ones around. If you rsync a > directory, all previous changes are lost. If you rsync to a different > directory every time to keep different versions, you might as well use > tar, because rsync won't save a lot of space/time in that case. And dump > will backup all ufs2 features such as flags and acls. I'm not sure if > rsync can manage that. It's also easy to compress dumps, which can save > a lot of space. >=20 > But if you need to lift a single file from a backup, it might be easier > with rsync, although dump has an interactive mode to select stuff to > restore as well. >=20 > A compelling reason to use rsync would be if the file system that is to > be backed up is so large that more than one backup won't fit on your > backup disk anyway. In that case rsync can save you a lot of time. And, if you _really_ screw things up, like 'rm -rf foo *' instead of 'rm -rf foo*' from /usr/bin, bunzip2 and restore are right there in /rescue, while rsync isn't. And getting rsync to work when /usr/bin is hosed is quite a lot of work (no compiler etc). And yes, these things happen (speaking from personal experience). :-( So making backups with something that is available in /rescue or on the boot CD is definitely a huge plus. Because if you need those backups, chances are you need them badly. Roland --=20 R.F.Smith http://www.xs4all.nl/~rsmith/ [plain text _non-HTML_ PGP/GnuPG encrypted/signed email much appreciated] pgp: 1A2B 477F 9970 BA3C 2914 B7CE 1277 EFB0 C321 A725 (KeyID: C321A725) --zjcmjzIkjQU2rmur Content-Type: application/pgp-signature Content-Disposition: inline -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v2.0.3 (FreeBSD) iD8DBQFGS2+oEnfvsMMhpyURAvICAKClspj2WYND+MqTAmzGYV0swB9VzwCfcz48 OINWfR7Mxk+4m0cTAlffl1w= =9egA -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --zjcmjzIkjQU2rmur--