best backup solution

[Rafnews]

Hi,

coming from microsoft windows world, i would like to know what is the best
backup solution/tool under linux. I'm aware of simple backup suite and
fwbackups, however i would like to understand the phylosophy behind Linux
backup.

under windows we used to backup the complete partition with files also
store in it.
this is the simplest method.

However under linux, till now i found only how to backup files...nothing
about partition.
could you explain me how linux people understand backup ?
should we only backup user's files and settings ?
how to you backup a webserver for example ? this is not a simple item and
it is not only user's files.
thx

[Ranjan Maitra]

I can not speak for the "linux people" nor do I even know who they are,
but welcome to using linux. To answer your question partially, I find
rsync and a cron job (running 3 times a day) my preferred way of backing
up.

What you back up depends on what you can not do without in the event of
a crash (my philosophy).

HTH,
Ranjan

On Wed, 30 Jan 2013 22:33:22 +0100 Raf Roger  wrote:
> Hi,
>
> coming from microsoft windows world, i would like to know what is the best
> backup solution/tool under linux. I'm aware of simple backup suite and
> fwbackups, however i would like to understand the phylosophy behind Linux
> backup.
>
> under windows we used to backup the complete partition with files also
> store in it.
> this is the simplest method.
>
> However under linux, till now i found only how to backup files...nothing
> about partition.
> could you explain me how linux people understand backup ?
> should we only backup user's files and settings ?
> how to you backup a webserver for example ? this is not a simple item and
> it is not only user's files.
> thx
>
> -- 
> Alain
>
> Windows 7 x64 / Fedora 17 x64
> MySQL 5.5.28
> Apache 2.4.3 / OpenSSL 1.0.1c
> Tomcat 7.17
> PHP 5.4.8

[Michael D. Setzer II]

On 30 Jan 2013 at 22:33, Raf Roger wrote:

Date sent:	Wed, 30 Jan 2013 22:33:22 +0100
Subject:	best backup solution
From:	Raf Roger 
To:	Community support for Fedora users
> Hi,
>
> coming from microsoft windows world, i would like to know what is the
> best backup solution/tool under linux. I'm aware of simple backup
> suite and fwbackups, however i would like to understand the phylosophy
> behind Linux backup.
>
> under windows we used to backup the complete partition with files also
> store in it. this is the simplest method.
>
> However under linux, till now i found only how to backup
> files...nothing about partition. could you explain me how linux people
> understand backup ? should we only backup user's files and settings ?
> how to you backup a webserver for example ? this is not a simple item
> and it is not only user's files. thx

There are a number of options. G4L, G4U, Clonezilla and others.
I've been the maintainer of G4L since about 2004, and it does 
partition and disk images of linux, windows, and other OS's. It can 
run from CD, or Flash, or even directly from the grub boot menu.

Couple weeks ago, had a power surge that fried a switch and a 
power supply in a server that scambled its disk. Disk was fine, but 
had to restore a recent image, and got it back up quickly.

A combination of the disk/parition and file level backups is 
probable best, and also snap shots with LVM.

G4L is build on my Fedora machines, but does use kernel.org 
built kernels from source.
> --
> Alain
>
> Windows 7 x64 / Fedora 17 x64
> MySQL 5.5.28
> Apache 2.4.3 / OpenSSL 1.0.1c 
> Tomcat 7.17
> PHP 5.4.8

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[Suvayu Ali]

On Thu, Jan 31, 2013 at 07:59:42AM +1000, Michael D. Setzer II wrote:
> A combination of the disk/parition and file level backups is 
> probable best, and also snap shots with LVM.

I would also agree with this statement.  For file-level backups look at
rsync and various rsync wrappers like rsnapshot, BackupPC.  For
partition level, you might want to look at LVM snapshots.

Hope this helps,

[Junk]

On 31 Jan 2013, at 10:32, Suvayu Ali  wrote:
> On Thu, Jan 31, 2013 at 07:59:42AM +1000, Michael D. Setzer II wrote:
> > A combination of the disk/parition and file level backups is 
> > probable best, and also snap shots with LVM.
>
> I would also agree with this statement.  For file-level backups look at
> rsync and various rsync wrappers like rsnapshot, BackupPC.  For
> partition level, you might want to look at LVM snapshots.
>
> Hope this helps,
>
> -- 
> Suvayu
> Open source is the future. It sets us free.

I'd just like to clarify that LVM snapshots are not really a backup method in themselves. Snapshots provide functionality to enable a block device level (i.e. partition) backup to be taken on a live and changing filesystem by some method. They only exist for the length of time the actual backup takes.

[Reindl Harald]

Am 31.01.2013 20:09, schrieb Junk:
> I'd just like to clarify that LVM snapshots are not really a backup method in themselves. Snapshots provide functionality to enable a block device level (i.e. partition) backup to be taken on a live and changing filesystem by some method. They only exist for the length of time the actual backup takes.

and they are NOT safe in case of open files like mysqld and
the like applications, the fs-snapshot does not grant you
anything if apllications are buffering which is common