From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Sat Aug 22 13:58:28 2009 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 7FEAD106568D for ; Sat, 22 Aug 2009 13:58:28 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from norgaard@locolomo.org) Received: from mail.locolomo.org (97.pool85-48-194.static.orange.es [85.48.194.97]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 356048FC08 for ; Sat, 22 Aug 2009 13:58:27 +0000 (UTC) Received: from beta.1-16-172-dyn.locolomo.org (beta.1-16-172-dyn.locolomo.org [172.16.1.127]) by mail.locolomo.org (Postfix) with ESMTPSA id 1B9B41C1A67; Sat, 22 Aug 2009 15:58:26 +0200 (CEST) Message-ID: <4A8FF981.7020707@locolomo.org> Date: Sat, 22 Aug 2009 15:58:25 +0200 From: Erik Norgaard User-Agent: Thunderbird 2.0.0.23 (Macintosh/20090812) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Jeffrey Goldberg References: <9F9B85A9-CC10-4793-B38D-4F1E1929BAF6@identry.com> <5A8F63C4-7244-410A-B115-9681709855B5@goldmark.org> In-Reply-To: <5A8F63C4-7244-410A-B115-9681709855B5@goldmark.org> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Cc: John Almberg , freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: What should be backed up? 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: Sat, 22 Aug 2009 13:58:28 -0000 Jeffrey Goldberg wrote: > On Aug 21, 2009, at 2:33 PM, John Almberg wrote: > >> I am currently using rsnapshot to back up these directories on a >> FreeBSD 7.2 webserver: >> >> /etc >> /usr/home >> /usr/local >> /var/cron > Here is my exclude list from my rsnapshot.conf > > exclude /var/log > exclude /var/tmp > exclude /usr/obj > exclude /usr/ports/distfiles > exclude /usr/local/squid > > Also I backup by file system, so I'm already excluding /tmp Yes, it's easy to miss something that should have been backed up. There is no point in backup of files other than those you modify yourself, unless you plan to create an exact image and recover using dd. After installation you can do # date > /tmp/TIMESTAMP then you can create a list of files that have been modified after that time with find, # find / -newer /tmp/TIMESTAMP > /tmp/backupfilelist If you have a backup cronjob, then you can use the same method to backup only files modified since last backup. On a base system with no services running, I'd restrict backup to /etc /home If you've got any ports installed, add /usr/local/etc /var/db/ports What else to add to the list really depends on which services you run, named, mail, cvs, web, ftp, nis, etc. and if these have critical files in other directories. If you have any databases or ldap service, then you want to add those as well, but it is recommended to dump these rather than backup the files themselves. I wouldn't backup source or the ports distribution, you have an online backup available :) If you rely on a particular snapshot, then you should configure that in your supfiles. But if you need to recover without network access you should backup source and the ports tree as well as distfiles or build packages whenever you install from ports and keep those backed up. BR, Erik -- Erik Nørgaard Ph: +34.666334818/+34.915211157 http://www.locolomo.org