In quite a few of the posts people say you should make a backup before make any changes. I have not seen any information of how to make a backup except making a full system backup of all user data.
The Bubba Two manual just say:
It is always recommended to backup your critical data. Always make sure you have a fresh copy of your critical files on a separate hard drive.
A backup function in Bubba|Two will soon be available via an software upgrade.
So how do I do a backup of important system files? Which files are important?
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System backup
Hi,
I was asking this myself some time ago and found this article. It has some interesting points on what to backup, what to consider and what to use when backing up. Perhaps it will help you.
I finally ended up with two rsync solutions, one for daily backups and another one for monthly backups. Perhaps a bit too cautious, but I've already had a hard disk failure where I lost all my mail correspondence and media files. Since then I tend to take less risks.
The first one will do a daily backup to a second server (a bubba1 in my case). This is a rather small backup and includes data that might be needed quickly (like mail folders and stuff), in case of a hard disk crash. This is started once every night by a cron job. I used this how-to as a starting point.
The second one is the huge backup. This involves backing up media files, like music, movies and stuff. This data doesn't change very often so I don't do this kind of backup very often, say once every three or four week, perhaps even less. I also include same folders as in first solution. For this backup, I have a USB hard disk. I've made a couple of scripts and a udev-rule so that all I need to do is connect the hard disk, the rest is taken care of automatically. The udev-rule will start a script that mounts the disk, starts the backup then unmounts the hard disk. The led on my bubba will blink during progress and return to constant on once backup has finished (so I know when it's safe to disconnect the USB drive).
This disk is preferably stored somewhere else than your house, like a friends or your parents house. This way you're hopefully protected should your house go up in flames.
I don't know of a how-to on my second solution, but I guess I could write one if you or anyone else is interested.
/Johan
I was asking this myself some time ago and found this article. It has some interesting points on what to backup, what to consider and what to use when backing up. Perhaps it will help you.
I finally ended up with two rsync solutions, one for daily backups and another one for monthly backups. Perhaps a bit too cautious, but I've already had a hard disk failure where I lost all my mail correspondence and media files. Since then I tend to take less risks.
The first one will do a daily backup to a second server (a bubba1 in my case). This is a rather small backup and includes data that might be needed quickly (like mail folders and stuff), in case of a hard disk crash. This is started once every night by a cron job. I used this how-to as a starting point.
The second one is the huge backup. This involves backing up media files, like music, movies and stuff. This data doesn't change very often so I don't do this kind of backup very often, say once every three or four week, perhaps even less. I also include same folders as in first solution. For this backup, I have a USB hard disk. I've made a couple of scripts and a udev-rule so that all I need to do is connect the hard disk, the rest is taken care of automatically. The udev-rule will start a script that mounts the disk, starts the backup then unmounts the hard disk. The led on my bubba will blink during progress and return to constant on once backup has finished (so I know when it's safe to disconnect the USB drive).
This disk is preferably stored somewhere else than your house, like a friends or your parents house. This way you're hopefully protected should your house go up in flames.
I don't know of a how-to on my second solution, but I guess I could write one if you or anyone else is interested.
/Johan
Hi Johan,
What I'm looking for is not primary a automated backup solution, I just want to make a backup of system data like configuration files and so on before I install or change things.
Of course I would prefer a script or similar so I don't have to manually copy each file every time, but I suppose I should manage to do that myself. But still, I don't know which files that are important for the system.
Br
Gustav
What I'm looking for is not primary a automated backup solution, I just want to make a backup of system data like configuration files and so on before I install or change things.
Of course I would prefer a script or similar so I don't have to manually copy each file every time, but I suppose I should manage to do that myself. But still, I don't know which files that are important for the system.
Br
Gustav
Hello again,
gurra: I'm no expert on the subject, but I think you should be pretty safe by backing up /etc and /var/spool/cron/crontab. My big backup includes /etc, /home, /root, /var/lib, /var/mail, /var/spool/cron/crontab, but then it contain more than just configuration files. You could also visit Filesystem Hierarchy Standard. I think debian, more or less, comply to this. It might shed some light on what folders to backup.
robv,darione: I'll see what I can do about the how-to
/Johan
gurra: I'm no expert on the subject, but I think you should be pretty safe by backing up /etc and /var/spool/cron/crontab. My big backup includes /etc, /home, /root, /var/lib, /var/mail, /var/spool/cron/crontab, but then it contain more than just configuration files. You could also visit Filesystem Hierarchy Standard. I think debian, more or less, comply to this. It might shed some light on what folders to backup.
robv,darione: I'll see what I can do about the how-to
/Johan