[Discuss] Backup linux desktops/workstations

[gaf at blu.org (Jerry Feldman)]

On 06/13/2012 07:03 AM, Dan Ritter wrote:
> On Tue, Jun 12, 2012 at 11:00:27PM -0400, Edward Ned Harvey wrote:
>> On mac & windows, I'm accustomed to Time Machine and Acronis.  Key features
>> are:  
>> . Run in the background, low priority, no complaints from user about
>> performance.
>> . Daily (or more frequent) incrementals
>> . Able to specify excludes
>> . Able to restore whole system, or just a few individual files
>> . User doesn't need IT assistance to restore a few individual files
>>
>> I'm willing to compromise on the last two points, and *maybe* even
>> compromise on the excludes.  But there can be no compromise on the first two
>> points.
>>
>> I'm trying to find a suitable, similar backup solution for linux (ubuntu
>> desktop in particular).  Up till now, the best I've done is dump (ext4
>> filesystem.)  Unfortunately, even when I nice dump to the fullest extent,
>> it's still too resource intensive.  Users complain tremendously, as long as
>> it's running.
> rsnapshot with a --bw-limit adjusted to take up less than half
> of a user's disk IO will satisfy 1,2,3 and 5. It's not great at
> whole-system restoration, although it can be done in combination
> with a rescue disk. It excels at "no IT assistance needed"
> partial restores.
One other advantage of rsnapshot over the standard full backup +
incrementals, is that every directory is both a full backup and
incremental. rsnapshot supports, hourly, daily, weekly and monthly. You
can easily place these in /etc/crontab. At work I use 2 hourlies (5PM
and 5AM) and 20 days worth of dailies. New York backs us up nightly.

-- 
Jerry Feldman <gaf at blu.org>
Boston Linux and Unix
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