Date: Thu, 6 Dec 2018 02:56:02 +0100 From: Polytropon <freebsd@edvax.de> To: Paul Schmehl <pschmehl_lists@tx.rr.com> Cc: FreeBSD Questions <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org> Subject: Re: Advice on backups Message-ID: <20181206025602.8843eb11.freebsd@edvax.de> In-Reply-To: <BE8953A062425223C2B04E31@Pauls-MacBook-Pro.local> References: <BE8953A062425223C2B04E31@Pauls-MacBook-Pro.local>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
On Wed, 05 Dec 2018 16:29:28 -0600, Paul Schmehl wrote: > So, I setup some scripts to create gzipped tarballs and transfer those to > my Dropbox account. (I have plenty of space there.) I run the scripts > daily, and the files are named with the date of the backup (e.g. > 120518.websites.tgz) > [...] > I've also created a backup directory in my home directory where I put > copies of all the scripts I run, plus a text file of crontab and a few > other things. I then zipped that and copied it to Dropbox as well. I don't > have a script for it, because those things don't change that often. A little suggestion that originates from ye olden times when CVS was common: Create a repository for your configuration files, use directory structures and "common" for the individual hosts. Keep track of changes you might appy. Make backups of the CVS directory tree, typically as a (compressed) tarball. With this method, you can quickly access any host's configuration from any (revision) date you need, and CVS commit messages might help you find what you need, e. g., the reason why you changed something. And if you deleted your working copy accidentally, it's no problem to check out a new instance from the CVS repository. Today, people of course use Subversion or probably Git, on GitHub... ;-) > Am I missing anything important? I tested untarring one of the tarballs > into my home directory, and if I understand it correctly, I would need to > untar these in / if I ever need to restore anything. Make sure tar archives restore _all_ file and directory properties as they are present in the source. The advantage of a tar archive is that you can also obtain _selected_ parts from the archive, if you don't need the whole one. For an exact 1:1 copy of filesystem content, I still suggest using dump + restore. Those can also be used comfortably via SSH. It is neccessary to pay attention to dumping from live filesystems, i. e, those which are in a r/w state (and not r/o or unmounted). See "man dump" and "man restore" for details. :-) -- Polytropon Magdeburg, Germany Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0 Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?20181206025602.8843eb11.freebsd>