On Thu, 2008-10-02 at 16:59 -0500, Andy Schmid wrote: > I'm looking for some advice on backing up data on a Linux workstation. > > I have looked around a bit, but most software suites seem way too > large and complex for what I need (e.x. Amanda). Does anyone know of > a simpler solution to use for routine backups? If you would like to try a GUI, Simple Backup is very cool: http://sbackup.sf.net/ If you prefer something on the command line, I agree with the other posters that some type of rsync-based solution is optimal. It helps to have a wrapper around rsync, IMHO. To this end, I've had equal success with rsnapshot ( http://rsnapshot.org/ ) and rdiff-backup ( http://www.nongnu.org/rdiff-backup/ ). Both are a little tricky to configure at first, but after a short time looking over their decent documentation, you'll have a consistent, efficient, reliable backup solution. Backups are directly accessible, meaning: no need for a special "restore" tool for the simple case of restoring the most recent backed-up version of a file or directory. rsnapshot has one important limitation: you cannot push backups to a remote server. The backup server *must* have rsnapshot installed. I've also heard great things about dirvish, but never tried it myself. Tips on rsnapshot: http://adammonsen.com/post/269 I don't have anything written up about rdiff-backup, but the configuration is even simpler than rsnapshot. Here's how I use it: rdiff-backup --include-globbing-filelist /etc/to_backup \ user at remote.backup.host::/backups/backupname rdiff-backup --remove-older-than 60D \ user at remote.backup.host::/backups/backupname These two shell commands are in /etc/cron.daily/mybackup . Here is the content of /etc/to_backup: -------------------------8<------------------------- /etc /home/user - /* ------------------------->8------------------------- This just backs up my homedir and /etc. I forget why the third line is necessary, but I just remember that it definitely is necessary. :) Other random hints: * I would not recommend backupninja ( http://riseuplabs.org/backupninja/ ) ... it is naught more than an overly complex set of shell scripts. YMMV, of course. It was particularly frustrating to try and get it working on Fedora due to dependencies on particular software revisions, but it worked slightly better on Ubuntu. * I was very excited about DIBS ( http://directory.fsf.org/project/DIBS/ ), but was never able to get a decent working solution. * I use Ubuntu, and installing any/all of the backup software I've mentioned in this email is a simple matter of "sudo apt-get install X" * If you want your backups to be encrypted, you might try duplicity ( http://duplicity.nongnu.org/ ). I instead opted for full control of the remote backup server, and having the backup medium fully encrypted. * My content to be backed up is around 50GB. It's hard to get enough bandwidth via a home DSL or cable modem connection to come up with a viable offsite backup solution. I would instead consider using a couple of external USB drives and always having one offsite. A friend of mine always had one backup drive at work, and one at home. * My memory is hazy, but I believe some or all of the solutions I've mentioned require rsync to be installed on the backup server. * Don't forget to do test restores! Good luck! -- Adam Monsen -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: application/pgp-signature Size: 189 bytes Desc: This is a digitally signed message part Url : http://mailman.mn-linux.org/pipermail/tclug-list/attachments/20081003/27ac1fe6/attachment.pgp