:: Re: [DNG] Backup methods for Devuan
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Author: Wm. Moss
Date:  
To: dng
Subject: Re: [DNG] Backup methods for Devuan
File system archives are best performed as a cron (run-parts or
run-crons or /etc/cron.d) task.

I use xfsdump(8) since all my file systems but /boot are XFS. I schedule
a level 0 dump once a month, a level 1 every two weeks, a level 2 every
4 days and a level 3 every 6 hours using a custom run-crons I wrote.

My /boot partition is EXT4 due to limitation of some ramfs (initrd) file
systems and grub. It is archived with dump(8).

All of this is archived to an internal 8 TiB drive (my system has 8
internal SATA/6 connections).

I also do a master archive to an external (eSATA) 10 TiB drive once
every 3-4 months. This consists of copying the scheduled archives and
creating a compressed tar of my NAS. The disk is installed in a shielded
metal case and is kept is a safe location between archives.

I have used something like this for over 30 years on Unix and Linux, for
both business and personal computer systems. In the past, I have used
various tape systems, but high capacity tape is now too expensive for
home use and overkill. None the less, for a business, I would recommend
Linear Tape Open technology.

YMMV

On 5/26/24 14:27, Antony Stone wrote:
> On Sunday 26 May 2024 at 20:08:19, nisp1953 via Dng wrote:
>
>> On Sun, May 26, 2024 at 9:26 AM Antony Stone wrote:
>>
>>> My first question is "what / where can you, or do you want to, backup
>>> this data to?"
>> I should have mentioned that. I back them up to external USB hard
>> drives. I have 2 hard drives. I keep one in a safety deposit box at the
>> bank. I backup to the other one all throughout the week. The following
>> Monday, I swap hard drives.
>> I am backing up about 34 GB of data. It's small but important.
> In that case I would not even consider incremental backups - I would take a
> full backup every day, and write it to a different directory (or even
> partition) on the external drive. I cannot imagine you are using disks
> smaller than 7 x 34 Gb = 238 Gbytes.
>
> I mention using separate partitions because with modern GPT partitioning you
> can have (I think) up to 256 partitions on a physical device (compared to 7
> with MBR), and a file system could become corrupt more likely than the entire
> disk becoming unreadable, so keeping each day in a different partition is safer
> than creating daily subdirectories in a single file system.
>
> In my opinion one of the most important things about a backup system is "how
> simple is it to identify where the data I need to restore is?" and the next
> most important is "how simple is it to restore that data?" possibly without
> wanting to restore the entire backup.
>
> Therefore a simple direct copy of the data in a normal file system which you
> can look through and copy from, using completely standard commands, would be
> my preference.
>
>
> Antony.
>


-- 
William (Bill) Moss
bill.m.moss@???
NY (USA)
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     those who cannot, are fools,
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