Backups?

[ciphergoth]

babysimon reacted with horror when I told him at the weekend that we still hadn't sorted backups out, and pressed a spare 250GB USB external drive into my hands.

What's everyone's favourite way of doing backups? We have a Windows and a Linux laptop to back up, both are switched on at unpredictable times. I just had a go at making brad's "brackup" go, but despite the great attraction of GPG-encrypted backups, it doesn't seem to be ready for prime time yet - the documentation isn't there yet, and it creates zillions of tiny encrypted files. I am resisting the temptation to write my own Python-based alternative. What do you use?

Update: I since found this rather nice solution.

Comments

[babysimon]

"Only wimps use tape backup: _real_ men just upload their important stuff on ftp, and let the rest of the world mirror it ;)"

[emarkienna.livejournal.com]

Mainly it's just manually/when-I-feel-like-it onto DVDs, but the set of things which are important and need regular backups (code, emails, photos etc) all fits onto a DVD each time (although I sometimes do photos separately). It's low tech, but it works :)

For one off things like mp3s, videos and software, I backup to 1 or preferably 2 CD/DVDs (my mp3s are also backed up onto 2nd hard disk, and my laptop).

Oh, and I always keep a recent backup DVD in my bag in case my house blows up or something.

More frequent backups I sometimes do onto my second hard disk or my laptop (either using the clunky Windows Backup - I'm sure there's better software - or just a manual copy).

[adq.livejournal.com]

For stuff that we just want a copy of with no history: selected rsync of important dirs (centralised video, mp3 archives and so on) to another machine in the flat (most machines backup to the server, the server backs itself up to the media PC).

For stuff that we want a revision history of (laptop /home, /etc and so on dirs): rdiff-backup to another machine in the flat.

For encrypted hard disk volumes: truecrypt as it is opensource and cross platform. Was nearly burned by the proprietary PGPDisk a few years back.

As for offsite: not sorted that out yet, but I tend to just burn loads of single layer DVDs out every so often, and ask a trusted someone to keep a copy in another flat.

[adq.livejournal.com]

Oh - if you need to do incremental backups of a lot of data, look into DAR (equivalent of TAR for disk oriented backups)

[phantas.livejournal.com]

Time machine and my own hack for secure remote daily backups of critical directories (Linux and Mac): link to the tar.gz

It's still a hack and is missing an easy and friendly way to recover the files as well as a database for the metadata. But it does what needs to be done: blocks are already encrypted when rsynced into the remote location and it's sufficiently broken down for close to minimum updating without leakage.

It's an ongoing project but it's very much on standby for the moment.:(

[phantas.livejournal.com]

explanation behind this: I don't have an home server. Instead I have a dreamhost account which I intend to swap for a slicehost account at some point. I prefer that a machine that is not under my sight and to which I'm not the sole root (I can't remember how VPM works in that sense) does not contain *at any stage* my data unprotected.

I use laptops so I can't rely on RAIDS or anything that needs my intervention for backups of frequently changing and critical data/directories.

[alexmc.livejournal.com]

Personally I rsync everything to another box - usually over ssh if it is going over public wire.

I use zrm for MySQL backups (zmanda)

[ciphergoth.livejournal.com]

BackupPC seems like the way to go - will sort it out. Thanks.

But looking at the answers here, it seems everyone has their own not-entirely-satisfactory string-and-sealing-wax solution. Maybe I really should think about writing an alternative.

[alexmc.livejournal.com]

I've been thinking of using Bacula for ages but have not yet found the time to learn how to use it properly.

[alexmc.livejournal.com]

Whenever I've lost my music collection I just ripped the CDs again.

.....


I must be weird in that respect.

[drdoug.livejournal.com]

If I told babysimon that I haven't sorted backups out, would he give me a spare 250Gb USB external drive too? Cos that would be cool.

Anything very important at home gets sent to the four winds (various online places and my work system of mirrors and centrally backed-up shares). For the rest, I rely on burning DVDs from time to time - the vast majority of stuff is photographs and videos. The really good photos are all online, and the ones that would make me cry if they were lost have been printed in multiple copies and circulated widely to friends and family in hard and electronic form.

My current music backup system is the original CDs. (Plus burned DVDs of the relatively small amount of stuff I've downloaded.) This made good sense originally but is now looking creaky. (Ye ghods it'd take forever to rip that lot again and get the metadata in to usable form.) Which is why I'm thinking an external drive (or something networky) would make sense. But I'm also waiting for Freesat PVRs to become available and would like a network backup store to talk to that too, which is an excuse for doing nothing yet ... but not a good one.

[lovingboth]

1. Email - all domains are set up to send incoming email to the relevant inbox and one of several Gmail accounts. This has the useful side-effect of being able to read email easily when away.

2. Ian generated content - still fits on a blank DVD-5 and it's easy to do that. What I want is a good offsite backup for this.

3. Disk images, especially of Windows OS / programs on USB discs. Too many backup 'solutions' leave you with the files there, but not with the right permissions / in the right place / whatever for the results to actually work.

4. 'Media files' - the vast majority of my disc space. In many cases, it would be re-torrentable, but the proportion of files this is true for became somewhat less likely with the end of Demonoid. USB discs seems to be the way to do this, but I'm still not happy.

5. For the past few months, I've started doing at least two copies of any DVDs/CDs burnt in case one is damaged/lost. This was prompted by the discovery that Post-it notes take the metal layer off one particularly bad set of CD-Rs I used a (thankfully small) batch of at one point around 2000. Ghod knows what they used to protect it. Another, even older batch of CD-Rs has developed data read problems bad enough to make CD audio audibly bad.
All copies are still stored locally, but in case of catastrophe, having lost a batch of copied DVDs is not going to be my main problem.


What I liked about the concept of brackup was that it a) used offsite storage that I trust will still be there when needed (Amazon - Google would be an alternative, but I don't think I've seen a commercial specialist offsite backup company that I would bet my data on) and b) did it in such a way that it didn't matter whether or not they were being co-operative to anyone wanting to see the contents. It's been some months since I had a look, but didn't it also keep older versions of files?

What I didn't like is that it didn't seem to work in Windows and, alas, I'm still using that enough of the time to want a Windows client.

I also want something that doesn't need a third of the local disc to be free - the less free space is needed, the better. And, unlike rsync, it has to be smart enough not to delete the backups of files that I've just deleted.

[juliet]

http://www.linux-mag.com/id/4429

[skibbley.livejournal.com]

Still thinking about it for laptops and some desktops (considering moving a virtualised image onto an always-on backed up machine then back to the desktop). At work we use tivoli.

[jhg.livejournal.com]

I haven't either. Can I have a spare 250GB USB drive please?

[jhg.livejournal.com]

Er... can this be used with a bog-standard WindowsXP-PC <> external USB drive?

[babysimon]

No, it requires a Linux server. The whole idea is to handle backups for your whole network in one place.

[babysimon]

If I told babysimon that I haven't sorted backups out, would he give me a spare 250Gb USB external drive too? Cos that would be cool.

No, I only had one spare. Also I'm sober now.

[damerell.livejournal.com]

3 250Gb externals, rsynced onto as and when (that's the bad bit). Most recently written one stays with me; the previous one goes to Sarah's as an offsite.

[jhg.livejournal.com]

Oh right fair enough. I guess I can just use the ordinary Windows tools then!

[jhg.livejournal.com]

Would you like a drink?

[stilettowhore.livejournal.com]

Personally I have a scheduled job that runs a 1-line batch file:
xcopy c:\stuff d:\stuff /s/e/v

Software RAID only works as well as the driver that's doing the writing, as one of our clients found out the hard way when the Intel ICH6 driver that runs their 2-drive RAID-1 system decided to corrupt the file system. Breaking the RAID, running CHKDSK, then putting the RAID back together again fixed the problem, but obviously the whole point of this was that you shouldn't have to do that in the first place.

[henry_the_cow]

In the pub last night, one person recommended Amanda (http://www.amanda.org/). I know no more about it than the URL.

[damerell.livejournal.com]

PS I still owe you a wodge of money.

[ciphergoth.livejournal.com]

Have emailed - cheers!