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Ask HN: How do you backup your linux system?

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Re: Ask HN: How do you backup your linux system?

#51

Post by gerdesj »

It .... depends.

Given I worry about this sort of thing for a living and am a partner in the firm: I think in terms of backup, DR, BC, availability and more. I have access to rather a lot of gear but the same approach will work for anyone willing to sit down and have a think and perhaps spend a few quid or at least think laterally.

For starters you need to consider what could happen to your systems and your data. Scribble a few scenarios down and think about "what would happen if ...". Then decide what is an acceptable outage or loss for each scenario. For example:

* You delete a file - can you recover it - how long

* You delete a file four months ago - can ...

* You drop your laptop - can you use another device to function

* Your partner deletes their entire accounts (my wife did this tonight - 5 sec outage)

* House burns down whilst on holiday

You get the idea - there is rather more to backups than simply "backups". Now look at appropriate technologies and strategies. eg for wifey, I used the recycle bin (KDE in this case) and bit my tongue when told I must have done it. I have put all her files into our family Nextcloud instance that I run at home. NC/Owncloud also have a salvage bin thing and the server VM I have is also backed up and off sited (to my office) with 35 days online restore points and a GFS scheme - all with Veeam. I have access to rather a lot more stuff as well and that is only part of my data availability plan but the point remains: I've considered the whole thing.

So to answer your question, I use a lot of different technologies and strategies. I use replication via NextCloud to make my data highly available. I use waste/recycle bins for quick "restores". I use Veeam for back in time restores of centrally held managed file stores. I off site via VPN links to another location.

If your question was simply to find out what people use then that's me done. However if you would like some ideas that are rather more realistic for a generic home user that will cover all bases for a reasonable outlay in time, effort and a few quid (but not much) then I am all ears.

Re: Ask HN: How do you backup your linux system?

#52

Post by Veratyr »

I have:

- A home NAS (4x5T + 7x4T = 48T, btrfs raid1)

- A 2U server sitting in a local datacenter (8x8T + 2x4T = 72T, btrfs raid1)

- An unlimited Google Drive plan

I run periodic snapshots on both servers and use simple rsync to sync from the home NAS to the colo. Irreplaceable personal stuff is sent from the colo to Google Drive using rclone.

Re: Ask HN: How do you backup your linux system?

#53

Post by gerdesj »

heywire wrote: post #44

Main home "server" is an Ubuntu system with a couple 2TB HDDs. It runs various services for IoT type stuff, has a few samba shares, houses my private git repositories, backups from Raspberry Pi security cameras, etc. It is backed up to the cloud using a headless Crashplan install. I use git to store dotfiles, /etc/ config files, scripts, and such, in addition to normal programming projects. We back up photos from our…

"I'm really paranoid about losing family photos"

No you aren't paranoid. Sensible. However, you've only just started. Try and do a restore every now and then from the HDDs.

There is no such thing as paranoia when it comes to protecting your data.

Re: Ask HN: How do you backup your linux system?

#55

Post by heywire »

gerdesj wrote: post #53
heywire wrote: post #44

Main home "server" is an Ubuntu system with a couple 2TB HDDs. It runs various services for IoT type stuff, has a few samba shares, houses my private git repositories, backups from Raspberry Pi security cameras, etc. It is backed up to the cloud using a headless Crashplan install. I use git to store dotfiles, /etc/ config files, scripts, and such, in addition to normal programming projects. We back up photos from our…

"I'm really paranoid about losing family photos" No you aren't paranoid. Sensible. However, you've only just started. Try and do a restore every now and then from the HDDs. There is no such thing as paranoia when it comes to protecting your data.

>Try and do a restore every now and then from the HDDs.

Not only do I do that, but I also occasionally pull down some files from Crashplan just to make sure everything is backing up and working as expected.

Re: Ask HN: How do you backup your linux system?

#56

Post by gerdesj »

blfr wrote: post #19

I don't back up the system. Drive failures are so rare nowadays that I will reinstall more often because of hardware changes. The important stuff (projects, dotfiles) I keep on Tarsnap. I also rsync my entire home directory to an external drive every other week or so. Similar for servers but I do back up /etc as well.

Drive failures are really rare until they happen when your data is personal experience of a few devices. When you worry about a data centre or n and or rather a lot of other systems with storage then you realise that it happens with monotonous regularity.

Now keeping a few short copies is also fine provided you don't make mistakes. Have you ever wanted to recover from a cock up you did six months ago or three years ago?

You do offsite (Tarsnap), so you have covered off local failures - cool.

Everyone's needs are different and the value they place on their data is different but I would respectfully suggest that you think really hard about how important some bits of your data are and protect them appropriately.

Fuck ups are hard to recover from 8)

Re: Ask HN: How do you backup your linux system?

#58

Post by gerdesj »

icebraining wrote: post #24
blfr wrote: post #19

I don't back up the system. Drive failures are so rare nowadays that I will reinstall more often because of hardware changes. The important stuff (projects, dotfiles) I keep on Tarsnap. I also rsync my entire home directory to an external drive every other week or so. Similar for servers but I do back up /etc as well.

Why would you reinstall due to hardware changes? My Debian installation has survived the move from two laptops already without any glitches.

My Arch and Gentoo installs have gone somewhat further than that 8)

Admittedly I'm not sure that you can consider one of them that went from i386 to amd64 as the same install simply because /var/lib/portage/world and /etc/portage/ (plus a few other bits) are the same. I still use it and it's on its fifth or sixth incarnation as my current laptop.

Trigger's broom?

(OK https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Ship_of_Theseus_exampl...)

Re: Ask HN: How do you backup your linux system?

#59

Post by gerdesj »

heywire wrote: post #55
gerdesj wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"I'm really paranoid about losing family photos" No you aren't paranoid. Sensible. However, you've only just started. Try and do a restore every now and then from the HDDs. There is no such thing as paranoia when it comes to protecting your data.

>Try and do a restore every now and then from the HDDs. Not only do I do that, but I also occasionally pull down some files from Crashplan just to make sure everything is backing up and working as expected.

Cover off longterm restores and you are pretty much good.

Don't forget that families/friends can also effectively offsite each other's backups without invoking third parties. That does assume connectivity, storage etc. Also it does need managing 8)

Re: Ask HN: How do you backup your linux system?

#60

Post by gerdesj »

kxyvr wrote: post #42

Perhaps someone could offer a related suggestion. At the moment, I use rsync to backup files to external hard drives. One of the difficulties that I run into is that some folders I want to mirror exactly between my computer and the backup. Other folders I want to only add files, but not delete, to the backup. Still others, like git repositories, I'd like to bundle rather than backup the directory itself. Finally, I m…

No, that is not backup or DR or BC (Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity). What you are describing is personal data management mixed up with backup.
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