Linux Format forums

bobthebob1234 · Posted: Tue Aug 30, 2011 12:36 pm Post subject: Server Backup

Anyone have any experience with bacula / amanda / bash scripts /anything else for backups?

I have a couple of servers that backup at the moment to their own internal / external hdds, and I want to make the backups a bit more central. I have a freenas server with 4tb of raidZ that I would like to backup to and I am getting a new (intel atom) server to do some network monitoring so I was thinking I could use that as the 'manager / director'

So any "preferences / how long it takes to learn / how easy it is to restore when I'm in canada and the people left are windows people... / what happens when the director dies/ avoid this like the plague / etc" dies comments would be great, thanks

(and yes I have googled)
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Dutch_Master · LXF regular Joined: Tue Mar 27, 2007 2:49 am Posts: 2354

1) Determine what needs backing up and how much space you need for it.
2) Put in some cronjobs:
2-1) once a week: scp the entire data-set to location X
2-2) daily: rsync changed data to location Y
3) make sure the backup locations are not accessible by normal users

When a restore needs to be done, scp the latest known correct backup from location X, then rsync from location Y manually. When you put in the cron jobs, make sure different times are specified for each copy action, to avoid clashes and network congestion and make sure enough time is given to complete the job. Also, put in place a system for removal of older backups, discuss the retention period with the 'powers-that-be', making sure they understand more retention means more costs and overhead...

nelz · Posted: Tue Aug 30, 2011 10:19 pm Post subject:

After trying various systems, I am now more than happy with BackupPC. It is space-efficient when backing up multiple computers as hard links are used for duplicate files, and as it is all controlled from the server, no software or configuration is needed on the machines to be backed up beyond ensuring that SSH is running.
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sledgehammer · Joined: Fri Jul 28, 2006 3:03 pm Posts: 44

I'm an Amanda man myself!?

Amanda is command line stuff unless you go commercial with Zmanda. I found Amanda tricky to configure but eventually when you get your head around some strange concepts and configure it correctly it just works and does the right thing. I have found it entirely reliable over the last five years or so. I do suggest that you use Genes helper scripts to backup the indexes as this is an Amanda weak point.

Restoring is easy but a bare metal restore is not, so you would need to practice that. If its for Windows admins then I'm afraid I think you are on a loser with this one unless you go Zmanda which has a web based gui.

Although I mention all the negatives above the big positive is that it has practically required no maintenance over the years I have been using it.

wyliecoyoteuk · Posted: Sat Sep 03, 2011 9:43 am Post subject:

+1 for BackupPC.
We back up all of our servers (Windows and Linux) to a Ubuntu server with a 2TB mirror running BackupPC, which has the off-site backup disk archive attached as well.
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bobthebob1234 · Posted: Sun Sep 04, 2011 2:03 pm Post subject:

thanks for the replies, i guess I should get reading about backupPC!
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For certain you have to be lost to find the places that can't be found. Elseways, everyone would know where it was

nelz · Posted: Sun Sep 04, 2011 11:00 pm Post subject:

You could start with LXF125.
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Unix is user-friendly. It's just very selective about who it's friends are.

bobthebob1234 · Posted: Mon Sep 05, 2011 11:01 am Post subject:

ooooh true dat. Now where is that pescky subs number...
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For certain you have to be lost to find the places that can't be found. Elseways, everyone would know where it was

bobthebob1234 · Posted: Tue Sep 20, 2011 10:03 am Post subject:

Ok let me see if I have got this right...

I have installed backuppc onto my new ubuntu server. Now I mount the 4tb freenas share (via nfs) to /var/lib/BackupPC

Then all the backups will go there.

What happens if I want to backup the freenas server to another freenas server (I did want to use zfs replication but I can't get it to fully work Sad

)?
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For certain you have to be lost to find the places that can't be found. Elseways, everyone would know where it was

nelz · Posted: Tue Sep 20, 2011 11:06 am Post subject:

rsync
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Unix is user-friendly. It's just very selective about who it's friends are.

bobthebob1234 · Posted: Tue Sep 20, 2011 11:12 am Post subject:

first backup of webserver running! Bit of a mission to get there, including “ vs " and permissions with the keys....

hooray!

now to work out how to get rsync to pull...
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For certain you have to be lost to find the places that can't be found. Elseways, everyone would know where it was

nelz · Posted: Tue Sep 20, 2011 11:54 am Post subject:

rsync doesn't care whether the remote or local end of the connection is the source or destination. As long as you have the appriate SSH public keys on the other box, you only need

bobthebob1234 · Posted: Tue Sep 20, 2011 12:15 pm Post subject:

I was going to create a cron job on the backup backup freenas server (the one that isn't mounted) to rsync. Takes some of the effort of the backuppc server Very Happy

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For certain you have to be lost to find the places that can't be found. Elseways, everyone would know where it was

nelz · Posted: Tue Sep 20, 2011 2:24 pm Post subject:

That's exactly what the command I posted does Smile

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Unix is user-friendly. It's just very selective about who it's friends are.

bobthebob1234 · Posted: Tue Sep 20, 2011 3:16 pm Post subject:

wouldn't work, no reference to BackupPC does not exist on either freenas server Cool

would be
/mnt/poolA/linuxBackup -> /mnt/poolC/linuxBackup

also did you mean