Backing up Ubuntu

[Jared Norris]

On Sat, 6 Jul 2019 at 13:27, Jari Fredriksson <jarif at iki.fi> wrote:

> Jared Norris kirjoitti 1.7.2019 14:08:
>
>      Good evening all,
>
>      I've been helping my family set up windows and mac machines lately
> and been impressed at their backup options. This put me on to looking at
> my Ubuntu backup options and I feel a little hard done by in comparison,
> which is odd as it's usually the other way around.
>
>      I thought it might just be I don't know all that's out there despite
> a few hours poking around online so I thought I'd put it out to you all.
> Is there such a thing as a good back up system/s for Ubuntu ? My use
> case is to achieve 2 things:
>      1 - Incremental file history - if I break a config file or other day
> to day file I'd like to be able to go back to a specific file and
> restore the single file.
>      2 - System snapshot - if I really break things I'd like the
> opportunity to reinstall as it was x amount of time before the break
>
>
>
>
Good evening all,

Thanks everyone for the suggestions, I've found a few new ones I wasn't
aware of. As a way of saying thanks I've summarised my quick look around
today below for anyone else in a similar situation.

I'm going to look a lot closer at Timeshift and Back in time to see if they
suit my needs. Next time I reinstall I'll also look into whether LVM or
BTRFS is a better option.

Incremental File Backup
Dar (http://dar.linux.free.fr/) - powerful, offers differential but will
require scripting to automate
rsync (and Grsync) - powerful, can keep a backup up to date without
transferring all files, requires scripting or cron to automate
Borg (https://www.borgbackup.org/) - has a few features but I can't see
value in this over rsync (which I already understand)
Back in time (https://github.com/bit-team/backintime) - looks like a
reasonable front end to rysnc that allows you to easily schedule while
keeping multiple copies of files to easily retrieve.

Whole system snapshot (while running - sorry I didn't specify this in the
original request but seems silly to have to power down to backup)
Timeshift (https://teejeetech.in/timeshift/) - this actually looks pretty
neat and close to what I was looking for. It uses either RSYNC or BTRFS
(user choice) as the underlying tool but only appears to support system
files so you'll need to use BackInTime or something else for files

Neither
HD Clone 8 (https://www.miray.de/products/applications/hdclone.html) -
can't be done while system running - needs reboot
Tar/cp/dd - will require booting from another device to create a full
backup, easier to use rsync for files
Clonezilla (https://clonezilla.org/) - looks like a good option but
requires the filesystem be unmounted

Other ideas
Formatting the drive in a different file system and using their tools to
take snapshots (e.g. ZFS & BTRFS)
Leverage LVM tools would also be a good option
Amanda (http://www.amanda.org/) - looks like a great solution to backing up
multiple computers in one location, however would come with a very steep
learning curve (I looked over the website and still couldn't figure out if
it was system snapshots or file backups...)
Veeam (https://www.veeam.com/) - appears to be more geared towards online
servers rather than home file systems
Bacula (https://www.bacula.org/) - looks similar to Amanda

Sorry if I missed any suggestions, but appreciate all the help.

Regards,

Jared
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