Backing up to DVD

Sun Mar 4 03:26:41 UTC 2007

On 2/6/07, Dave M <DaveM at mich.com> wrote:
> Since I started using Ubuntu last year, I have been hacking away, trying to
> figure out how to do system, user and daily backups. To backup my system
> directories I decided to use mondo. Easy enough, just install it from the
> repositories using Synaptic and it works.
You can read here a small how to use it if you are interested in.
http://linux.go2linux.org/node/32

>
> But backing up my user files was another matter. My system usage is too
> complex and I have too many user files to just throw in a DVD and burn a
> bunch of directories to it. K3b works great for that. But I need something
> that can easily do daily incremental backups, verify that the DVD was
> burned properly and can be scheduled to run automatically, unattended. I
> also need a high degree of certainty that the files actually get backed up
> and that the burned DVD's are good.
>
> In the Windows world I was using Backup4all. The closest thing I could find
> in the Linux world was KDar. KDar is an easy to use GUI front-end for Dar.
> Unfortunately KDar and Dar do not know about DVD's.
>
> So I needed some additional utilities and a script to tie them together.
> What I thought was going
> to be a simple exercise turned out to be quite complex. Here is an example
> (see attached) of the
> BASH script that I have been using to deal with burning Dar slices to my
> DVD's. This script
> workd equally well using KDar, Dar with cron or Dar launched from the Gnome
> menu).
>
> This script does the following:
> o Has an option to make a redundant file for each Dar slice
>    - using Par2, slow but small files (-rP)
>    - using a second copy of the slice, fast but large files (-rC)
>    - using both a second copy and a Par2 file, most redundant (-rB)
>    - redundant file creation can be disabled, fastest burn (-rN)
> o Burns the slice to the DVD
>    - makes a new file system if the DVD is blank
>    - adds a new session if the DVD already has files on it
>    - if the DVD was blank it adds par2, dares-qt, dar_cp and dar_static.
>      these are small files that could aid in a bare metal restore or with
> damaged DVD's
>    - adds the log file in case you need it while restoring (if something
> went wrong)
> o Has an option to verify the burned DVD
>    - verify the slice files that where just burned, return fail if verify
> fails (-vY)
>    - re-burn the slice if the verify fails, retry three times before
> failing (-vR)
>    - verify may be disabled (-vN)
> o Extracts the catalog from those slices that have catalogs.
>    The extracted catalog is saved to be used as a basis for future
>    differential backups.
> o Deletes each slice after burning and verification to make
>    room for the next slice.
>
> I use the KDar GUI to define my backup job. KDar can run dar and use
> KDar_BurnSlice
> (this script) to burn the backup slices to a DVD. Or KDar can be used to
> make a
> BASH script that contains a Dar command and then that script can then be
> used to
> launch Dar. This is useful in the case where you would like to have cron
> launch
> the backup on a scheduled basis or have a one-click menu option to launch your
> backup.
>
> Getting started -
>
> I am using Ubuntu and installed my packages using the Synaptic package
> manager.
> I installed the following:
>   - Dar
>   - KDar
>   - Par2
>   - gzip
>   - mkisofs
>   - DVD+RW-Tools (growisofs)
>   - Gnome-Schedule
>
> I placed KDar_BurnSlice.sh (this script) in ~/Scripts/
> Check to be sure that the script has execute privileges.
>
> I made a working directory for my backups, catalogs, logs etc.
> I use ~/Backup/ and create a sub-directory for each job.
> For example, ~/Backup/HomeFull/, ~/Backup/HomeDiff/ etc.
>
> I also made a directory to save my KDar profiles and KDar scripts.
> I use ~/KDar/
>
> I run KDar and click the "Create" button.
>
> I click through each step to select the directories I wish to back up,
> the directories to exclude, the file types to exclude and the
> file types that should not be compressed etc. I use the following settings:
>
>   - I use the date and time as part of my archive name. For example:
>       HomeDiff_070205-1730
>     if you plan to export the Dar command script (and launch it with cron
>     or from the menu) then you must add a date command to your archive
>     name so the date changes automatically each time the script is run.
>     For example:
>       HomeDiff_"$(date +%y%m%d-%H%M)"
>     Be sure to include the quotes. Note that this will not work if KDar
>     is used to launch Dar. If you use KDar to run the backup job you must
>     change the date and time manually first.
>
>   - My root directory (for the backup job) is set to /home
>
>   - If I am doing a differential backup, I must point KDar to a
>     catalog as my reference point. This can be the catalog from
>     my last full backup, for example:
>       /home/MyUserName/Backup/HomeFull/Cat/HomeFull_070101
>     or from whatever differential point I choose to use:
>       /home/MyUserName/Backup/HomeDiff/Cat/HomeDiff_070125-1250
>     I would suggest doing a full backup first.
>     Then do your first series of Diffs based on the catalog from the Full
> backup.
>     Later Diffs can reference the catalog from an earlier Diff.
>
> -  As each series of Diff's fills up a DVD (that usually takes me about a
> month),
>     I change the DVD, do another diff and then I change the reference
> catalog (in KDar)
>     to my most recent diff catalog. Be sure to export the script and save
> the profile
>     after changing the reference catalog. The reasoning behind this
> procedure is that
>     each DVD will then contain all of the files from the previous set of
>     Diff's as well as any new files that changed while I was using that DVD.
>     So each time I change DVD's I will have two copies of my files on two
> DVD's.
>     One copy is the last diff on the old DVD and the other is the first
> diff on
>     the new DVD. Just in case a DVD is lost or damaged.
>
> -  I use KDar "ConfigureCreationOptions" to set up the backup job.
>     o General-ArchiveStorageDir: /home/MyUserName/Backup/HomeDiff/
>     o General-Logging: Full to /home/MyUserName/KDar/KDar.log
>     o Slicing-SplitArchive-SliceSize: 400Mb if you plan on using parity,
>       440Mb if not. Since there is a problem with growisofs adding sessions
>       to a DVD when the DVD has 4Gb or more already burned, this will allow
>       you to fully fill a DVD (with 10 slices) when doing large backup jobs.
>     o Slicing-CommandToRun this is where you call the script:
>       /home/MyUserName/Scripts/KDar_BurnSlice.sh %p %b %n %e -rP -vY >>
> %p/%b.log 2>&1
>         You can choose the following options for verify and redundancy:
>         -vN (Verify No)
>         -vY (verify Yes)
>         -vR (Verify and re-burn - default)
>         -rN (redundancy No)
>         -rP (redundancy using a parity file, Small files but slow - default)
>         -rC (redundant copy of file, Fast but large files)
>         -rB (Both parity and copy, most redundant)
>     o Compression-Exclude, I exclude the following since they are already
> compressed:
>       *.*_,*.aac,*.avi,*.bin,*.bz2,*.cab,*.dar,*._dd,*.deb,*.dv,*.exe,
>       *.gif,*.gz,*.iso,*.jpg,*.lzo,*.m4a,*.m4v,*.mov,*.mp3,*.mp4,*.mpg,*.oma,
>       *.ogg,*.par,*.par2,*.pbm,*.pdf,*.png,*.pnm,*.rar,*.rm,*.rm1,*.rpm,
>       *.tgz,*.vmdk,*.wmv,*.Z,*.zip
>     o I dont use Cryptography since I probably couldn't find my key if I did.
>       Of course using this option will depend on your needs.
>     o I exclude Directories and files as needed. In general I exclude all
> of my media
>       files since I back them up separately. So this option will depend on
> your needs.
>     o I do not disable or ignore any of the file system options.
>       But this option will depend on your needs too.
>
> - Be sure to save the profile that you have just created.
>    Beware, if you click "Finish", KDar will run the backup job!
>
> - If you plan on using cron or the menu to run a daily backup, use KDars
>    "SaveProfile-ExportDarCommand" button. Before exporting the Dar command
>    be sure that you have added "$(date +%y%m%d-%H%M)" (including the quotes)
>    to the end of your archive name. If you dont, the name of the diff will be
>    the same each time it is run and the older files (on your DVD) will be
> hidden
>    by the new session. If your job produces more than one slice, you may
> end up with
>    slices that have the same name from various backup runs. Which will not
> be useable.
>
> - I save my profiles and dar scripts to my ~/KDar/ directory. I name the
> scripts
>    HomeFull.sh and HomeDiff.sh
>
> To set up an automatic daily backup, I use Gnome-Schedule, which is a GUI
> for cron,
> to launch the script. I set up a Recurrent Scheduled Task. I used the
> 'Advanced'
> tab to set the schedule. I un-checked the 'No Output' box and used the
> following
> command to launch the backup job:
>
>    /home/MyUserName/KDar/HomeDiff.sh >> /home/MyUserName/KDar/Daily.log 2>&1
>
> I also set up a menu entry for my backup so I can run it whenever I have
> something
> importaint to save. I used the Alacarte menu editor to add the following
> command
> to my menu.
>
>    gksudo /home/MyUserName/KDar/HomeDiff.sh >> /home/MyUserName/KDar/Daily.log
>
> Note that I needed to use gksudo to run the job as root (if it needs access
> to all of
> the files in /home).
>
> If you prefer not to use KDar, here is an example of a Dar command that
> uses this script:
>
>    $dar -v -c HomeDiff_"$(date +%y%m%d-%H%M)" -R "/home/" -A
> "HomeDiff_070125-1250" -s 419430400 -D -y -E "KDar_BurnSlice.sh %p %b %n
> %e >> %p/%b.log 2>&1"
>
> I am releasing this under the GPL 3 draft (or later) copyright. So feel
> free to
> share, modify fix etc. If you find problems or have suggestions, please let me
> know at "Davem at Mich dot Com" with "KDar_BurnSlice" in the subject line.
> If anyone has an idea as to where I should host this script, or would like
> to volunteer
> to host this script, please let me know.
>
> Maybe the KDar developers could take a look at KDar_BurnSlice and add its
> functionality to KDar. It would be nice if KDar could burn CD's and DVD's
> without the use of scripting.
> -------------------------------
> Dave M
> Davem (at) Mich (dot) Com
> Ann Arbor, Mich. USA
>
> Inter-networked computers give you freedom.
> The "Trusted Computing Platform" could take that freedom away.
> http://www.eff.org/Infrastructure/trusted_computing/20031001_tc.php
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>
>


-- 
Guillermo Garron
"Linux IS user friendly... It's just selective about who its friends are."
(Using FC6, CentOS4.4 and Ubuntu 6.06)
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