grsync (rsync) usage question

[Default User]

On Sun, 2007-09-30 at 16:02 -0700, Smoot Carl-Mitchell wrote:
> On Sun, 2007-09-30 at 13:02 -0500, Default User wrote:
> 
> > Currently I use partimage to make full system backups.  That's fine to
> > restore an entire system to its condition at the time of the last
> > backup, say in case of a catastrophic hard drive failure.  
> > 
> > But any changes since the last backup are of course lost, and with
> > partimage, I can't restore just a file or part of a filesystem, I can
> > only restore entire partitions.  
> > 
> > So I was wondering if rsync could be used to do a full backup of a live,
> > running filesystem, from within that filesystem (Or does that need to be
> > done from outside the filesystem, say from a rescue "live cd"). 
> 
> You can use rsync to make a full image of a filesystem. Of course on a
> live system, you may have some inconsistencies with open files, etc. 
> 
> > Or would I still have to use both partimage for full partition restores,
> > and rsync for partial filesystem restores and incremental backups?  
> 
> I think you can set up a system with rsync to do full backups.  An
> advantage, of course, is rsync only copies updates after you do an
> initial copy. You might also take a look at the --backup and --back-dir
> rsync arguments. They make backup copies of files which changed.
> Combined with pdumpfs or glastree, it makes for a handy nearline backup
> solution.
> -- 
> Smoot Carl-Mitchell
> System/Network Architect
> email: smoot at tic.com
> cell: +1 602 421 9005
> home: +1 480 922 7313
> 

Thanks Smoot for the suggestions.  For now I will do Partimage weekly
(at least), and rsync at least daily, and see how that works.