backing up shadow files with rsync?

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On 02/16/2011 09:23 AM, Robert Moskowitz wrote:
> How would you back up /etc/passwd and its shadow file (and the same for 
> /etc/groups) using rsync?
> 
> In my case, I have a USB drive to back stuff up to.  I already have a 
> cron job, backing up /home
> 
> And then, for my documentation, how would I restore the shadow files?
> 
> This is to provide for disaster recovery (which I am in the middle of 
> right now without proper backups...).
> 
> 

  If it disaster recovery you may want to backup entire root anyway ...
certainly /etc /var

  I would also suggest you use rdiff-backup and not rsync - that way you
will have history of changes - and if the disaster is /etc/shadow got
turned to 0 byte file - having  a backup of earlier versions is vital.
rdiff-backup leaves you a browsable top level directory of files of the
current snapshot - (just like a rsync backup would) but has the ability
to build older revs too.


  I cron trim my rdiff-backups to 3, 6 or 12 months depending on which
partition (directory whatever) it is.

  You then need to decide on backup frequency - it may vary from minutes
or hours to daily .. again depending. I run key backups every 1 to 2
hours and otherwise nightly. The cost of hourly's is low if the change
volume is not too rapid.

  gene