Simple Backup question.

[Rashkae]

Maxime Alarie wrote:
> Good day, 
> 
>  
> 
> I have a quick question for administrators.  Not sure if it's the right
> mailing list as this is my first post.
> 
>  
> 
> I have a ubuntu Server:  Ubuntu 9.1 Server Edition - No GUI
> 
>  
> 
> I normally do a full backup of my ubuntu  webserver   (/var/www/) using
> a cronjob and tar | gzip ,  The backup is about 1.23GB in size
> everyday..
> 
>  
> 
> Since we'll be putting more stuff on this webserver, a full backup
> everyday is a little bit over the top, so I would like to start using
> incremental backups in order to save space.
> 
>  
> 
> Problem is Im not  too familiar  with incremental backups. My thought is
> to use tar  with   mtime 1.  But I am not sure how to handle the rest.
> Any of you are used to work with incremental backups? 
> 
> I plan to do a Full Backp  every week, then incremental on week-days.  
> 
>  
> 
> Last Question about the restore..
> 
>  
> 
> Scenario:
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>  
> 
> We're Thursday, and I want to  do a restore..  The Full backup was taken
> on Monday, but incremental were taken every  nights.. 
> 
> I Only have to restore the Full Backup and the incremental backup from
> last night?
> 
>  
> 
> Regards
> 

If the bulk of your data is static files (as opposed to database files 
that change every day, for example), I would strongly suggest using 
rsync with hard links to previous data as a backup solution.  (This can 
be automated with the rsnapshot package, which scripts the functions for 
you)

The idea is explained here:

http://www.mikerubel.org/computers/rsync_snapshots/

I would point out however, that since that article was created, rsync 
now has the built in ability to create the links itself.  See rsync man 
page for the --link-dir option, which has advantages over cp -al (or 
just use rsnapshot)

rsnapshot home page is here:

http://rsnapshot.org/