Backup Software....

[larsd]

'Just wondering what some recommendations would be for a good backup program,and not necessarily bare metal imaging software.
I'm familiar with several, but would like to know what others use and why.
I'd really like to install a backup that could do incremental backups.
I've used Mondo , and a couple of other programs in the past. I'm looking at Redo Backup, and also Bacula, although that might be more than I need.
Any comments or suggestions and experience with any backup software appreciated.
Thank you.

[larsd]

'Also aware of 'dd'. Thanks.

[PhilCollins]

I've been using BackInTime for a couple of years and am completely happy! It's very configurable, and backs up in a non-propriety format so if the worst comes to the very worst you don't need the original back-up software to do a restore.

Each day's back-up looks like a complete copy, but through clever use of sym-links only takes up the space of new/changed items. After each back-up the system adjusts things to retain copies according to your defined regime. For example, I have daily back-ups retained for a 2 week period. Beyond that, it reduces to weekly backups for a 2 month period, and then monthly backups for a 2 year period, and then yearly backups for a 10 year period. The system achieves this by doing a "smart" remove within the back-up repository after each new back-up has been done. Back-up scheduling is very flexible, and the whole thing works happily in the background and is not disturbed by you doing work at the same time that it is copying stuff.

Specifying what should be contained within a back-up is simple, and restoring individual files, or complete structures is a one-click affair. It's also possible to have multiple "profiles" so, for example, you could back-up certain files & folders according to one schedule, and others according to a different schedule.

[Rod J]

+1 for BackInTime.

I've been using this for a couple of years now too and it really is good. It's very clever how it appears to be duplicating all the files at every backup but the vast majority of the files a just hard links to the previous (unchanged) versions. I've tested this using du -chsB1M ./* in my backup location to confirm that the backups after the initial full backup are taking up minimal space.

I use two profiles myself, one is for my docs, pictures, music, etc. and the other for miscellaneous data spread over many locations.

This is the website for BackInTime: http://backintime.le-web.org/

The latest stable version can be found here: https://launchpad.net/~bit-team/+archive/ubuntu/stable

[larsd]

Phil, Rod J, thanks for the replies. I didn't mention 'Back in Time', but I had looked at it too at one time.
Installed the latest version yesterday after Phil's post, and it's working great.
One question, perhaps a silly one, but if I back up my separate boot partition, I of course do not use full rsync mode.
The other volumes are ext4, so that's fine for them. I already have it on a schedule, backing up at 3am.
I've looked at other software, and some of it's really good, but I think this is just what I've been looking for.
One other 'dumb' question: besides /home, what are some other files/directories that you guys include ? I've included several out of /etc, plus the /boot directory that I mentioned.
Again, thanks for the replies and help.

[larsd]

Again, thanks guys. Set it up to backup the ext2 boot drive, not using the full rsync at 2am, then at 3am, it does use the full rsync option and backs up ext4 /home and several other files and directories. Set it it to run in cron, and I manually went through the steps that I had inserted & things went fine, backups were valid and without error. This morning, the program ran
as scheduled and performed the backups as advertised. I'm backing up to a 500GB spare drive I have in my PC. I changed a few of the options in the program, but other than that, I've found what I've been looking for.

Addendum: /boot backup set to back up only once a month, in case of any change in kernel, etc....; obviously, grub is not likely to change, not on my
system anway.

[larsd]

'Sorry for the pretty ignorant reply. I haven't worked with crontab that much, or Linux backups, so I'm just learning quite a few things.
I only have one backup at 3am, and backup /boot, /etc, /home, /usr, and /var, plus some root files. Why all of this ? I guess because I have the space, and it's not really going to matter anyway, since the backups are differential. /Boot backs up just fine when backed up as part of the mounted file system.
I'm only using crontab, though, and inserting these lines after the entries already there; the backup takes far less than 30 min, but, just to be safe.... Thanks again. I'm here to learn just like many people, and I'm obviously very far from an extremely knowledgeable user.

58 02 * * * root tune2fs UUID="3af66dd4-fe20-44e7-b214-fdfb9c459692" -o journal_data_writeback
59 02 * * * root mount -t ext4 UUID="3af66dd4-fe20-44e7-b214-fdfb9c459692" /mnt/backup
30 03 * * * root umount UUID="3af66dd4-fe20-44e7-b214-fdfb9c459692"

[larsd]

Back in Time saved me today; from the startup menu, I ran recovery, and and checked my drives. The drives were fine, but after they were checked, I received a message stating "Error getting authority: error initializing authority: could not connect, no such file (g-........quark). I googled around and thought I'd come up with a solution, but ended up causing more problems than I fixed (if I had a problem to start with), so I performed a restore on just those directories I back up, and things were back to normal.
I always used to repeat the mantra, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it".... !

[gnomek]

I'm looking for a program that can do KDE and programs' settings backup. For system backup I use Clonezilla.

Can you tell me if Back in Time can backup hidden folders and files, symlinks, preserving privileges and information whether file is executable? I'd like to be able backup /home but excluding some folders. Can this be done to compressed file like tar.gz or whatever using USB NTFS disk?

Can other programs like: Kup Backup System, Déjà Dup, PeaZip, Luckybackup, kbackup do that?

Of course some incremental backup options would be great. And I want to do it manually, like "copy from here to there and replace".

I guess I could be done even with ark (correct me if I'm wrong) but I want to be able to set a job and done it quickly with one click.

There are ideas about it on KDE brainstorm

KDE System Settings - Backup & Restore

Integrate an easy backup tool

but until it is integrated into KDE an external program is needed.

[larsd]

BackinTime, Backup, Rsync, etc...

Gnomek, I have been using BackinTime for several months now with no problem. And I just looked to be sure, but yes, it does back up the home ./ directories, and all with full ownership, rights, etc..., just not the big 3 of rsync, X,H,A. The best explanation of rsync I found was here: http://articles.slicehost.com/2007/1...es-and-folders . I had played around with rsync a lot, and still didn't get it until I read this article, plus he has follow-ups and answers most of the questions posed. The -a option pretty much does everything you're wanting, if I'm understanding you correctly. Personally, I prefer the KDE desktop also, but really, we're just backing up a system of files, so unless you're stating you want something specifically targeted towards KDE, I don't know how you can go wrong with BIT, as there is a KDE variant if you have to have one. 'Just playing around, I wrote a fairly simple script, using rsync, that does almost exactly what BIT does, but I have the option of setting it up precisely the way I want it, although BIT does give one almost all of the same options.
The restore is what I practised, and ran through a couple of times, as the docs don't seem to go into this phase of the program too much.
Good luck.

[whatthefunk]

I had been using Back in Time. I upgraded to 15.04 the other day (huge mistake) and needed to grab some system config stuff that didnt make it through the upgrade. I opened Back in Time, got an error message that said it couldnt find any backups, and then it proceeded to overwrite everything on my backup drive with a new backup. Excellent. I now have one backup from one minute ago. That program can go to hell.

[larsd]

You know, as many times as I've blown a linux installation (one of my most brilliant moves was upgrading 14.04 to 15.04; really, what was the point ?), I needed a good backup program, and after working with BIT, manually backing up and restoring, it works for me. I had headache after headache with Mondo Rescue; maybe I didn't learn enough about it, or failed to have some dependency installed, but it never worked right for me.
With Windows, I used to do a Ghost backup every week, now I use cwRsync. and there's Grsync if you have to have a GUI with linux.
I honestly understand your frustration, as I've had some strange things happen with BackinTime too; like, I was using a 500GB drive for backup, /dev/sdd1; well, somehow, BackinTime backed up to my Windows drive, /dev/sdc1, and wiped it. 'Glad I had the backups !
I'd tell anyone to really learn rsync, and then use it from the command line or through a script, or use the GUI if preferred. I have 2 1TB drives, with linux on one of them, and I backed it up using rsync (plus some use of H, A, & X), then restored this backup to the other drive, bare metal, and then rebooted, using that drive as the boot drive. After changing the arrangement of the drives in the bios, it booted up just like the original drive with no problems and no loss of data. (BTW, the man page for rsync really needs some clarification and a rewrite !!).
Thorough familiarity with linux commands & their options is a skill that any linux/unix user should develop; just spend 15-20 minutes a day at the command line, and you'd be surprised what can be accomplished. 'Not at all saying what happened to you was your fault; strange things do have a tendency to happen, especially when the number of drives increase.
Look around if you don't like BIT and have to have a GUI backup program; there are plenty of them around, and even commercial apps if you want to go that route.
Good luck !

[larsd]

Just to clarify, when I stated I performed a "bare metal" restore, it was a restore of a simple system without LVM, but, I also performed a more or less bare metal install of a system using LVM, and I just had to prepare the destination disk first; make an ext2 boot partition, make an extended partition, and create very similar size logical volumes. Using this as a destination, a restore of an LVM system worked perfectly, just as the restore of the simple system.
BTW, when the whole system is backed up, make sure you exclude { /proc /sys /dev/pts /tmp /run /lost+found plus mounted media, (/mnt/Backup....), and /home/.thumbnails/*. /home/*/.cache/mozilla/* /home/*/.cache/chromium/*. /home/*/.local/share/Trash/*. /home/*/.gvfs }. For extended attributes with gsync, the -A and the -X for preserve ACL's and extended attributes are used; also, the -H for hard links.
I tried using tar, dar, and some other utilities similar to these for backups, and found they work, but they're just so much slower than rsync, and offer nothing more that I could find.
Some other programs that I checked out if you don't care for BIT are "LuckyBackup", "FullSync", "Gadmin Rsync", and "Grsync". I found all of these easy to use. There are several more, but most of them usually become more complex and difficult to use.
Good luck !