Russell Gadd wrote:
> I'd like to ask for advice re a backup system I'm trying to set up for
> Linux. I have given some background which please excuse if it seems a bit
> long.
>
> I have used Windows for many years and have recently decided to try to
> convert to Linux as I don't want to go down the Vista route, so I am a
> Linux
> greenhorn (apologies in advance for my ignorance). I have a boot manager
> (BootitNG) which allows me to run Windows XP (actually 3 different
> instances
> - home, work and internet banking) and I have installed Debian and Ubuntu
> alongside these. My goal at present is to get beyond the "playing with it"
> stage to do some real work and so I want to first set up a backup system
> and
> then address some basic security issues (which I need to do more research
> on).
>
> My "daily" backup system will copy my personal files to a folder on a
> separate FAT-32 (VFAT) partition (shared with Windows) and then mirror
> this
> partition to a second hard drive. Also copy the files to a USB stick
> (permanently connected in a port in the back of the PC) - "belt and
> braces".
> A "weekly" routine will copy backup files to a CD (then stored in my
> garage
> separate from the house). I have this automated in Windows via an icon on
> the desktop (running a batch command file) which is what I want to achieve
> in Linux also.
>
> I separate personal files from files which can be recovered if necessary
> from a new install of the OS and software. I backup the latter via imaging
> the OS partitions and mirroring them to the second hard drive and
> occasionally to DVD.
>
> I currently have a simple bash script (my first!) which uses tar and
> rsync.
> In order to backup onto a VFAT partition I have had to use tar to preserve
> permissions, which seems ok. Although it necessitates rewriting all the
> data
> not just the changed data, this doesn't amount to a lot of stuff.
>
> My problem is with rsync, which I use so that it only needs to mirror the
> files which have changed, since the partitions to mirror contain a lot
> more
> than just the personal data (e.g. Linux .iso images, things stored on DVD,
> etc). To get it to run from an icon on the desktop (Gnome) I have
> initially
> resorted to the setuid bit to allow rsync to run as root otherwise it
> refuses to clone the partition. However I understand this is not good from
> a
> security standpoint and I need to find a better solution. It also breaks
> when rsync is updated (via Synaptic) which I found out recently, as I
> presume the executable has been replaced by a newer version so the setuid
> bit would need tweaking again.
>
> Most discussions of backup I have seen talk about using cron, but my PC is
> not on 24/7 and I want to continue my practice of invoking the backup
> routine at the end of a session of work shortly before I pull the plug, so
> either I want to be able to start if from an icon on the desktop. Or maybe
> a
> script which can be set up to run on logoff - I haven't checked into
> whether
> this is possible or how to do this yet - maybe this could be a root
> script?.
> But somehow I prefer the manual invocation via an icon.
>
> My current rough idea to solve this is to set up a sort of handshake which
> is maybe a bit clumsy. The desktop icon would run a script which sets a
> flag
> - just a date/time saved in a text file, and there would be a cron script
> owned by root which runs say once per minute to check this file for the
> latest date/time and perform a backup when it sees the date/time is later
> than the last backup. I haven't looked at cron in any detail yet so there
> may be gotchas here. I don't know whether there would be problems with a
> collision if the user script was writing the file when cron is trying to
> read it. Also how would I know when the job has been done and if it
> suceeded
> ? - maybe the user bash script would need to run continuously looking for
> an
> end of job handshake from the backup script?
>
> I would appreciate comments on this idea or any alternative ideas- thanks
> in
> advance. Also if I should instead be asking this in some other mailing
> list,
> please tell me where to go (politely I hope:)
>
Hi Russell
I have the impression that you would like to have more protection for your
data than your hardware configuration allows currently. As Peter said,
just some suggestions. You may want to consider using software RAID if you
have more than two similar sized hard drives in your machine. This takes
care of minute by minute backup of what sounds like important data.
Rather than have a script constantly scanning your system which could
cause performance degradation. This, for simplicity may mean re-installing
your Linux OS.
Secondly consider working directly on a shared network drive to server or
second PC dedicated to storing your data, this second machine could be
tuned to work just as a make shift NAS (Network Attached Storage) you
could use Samba (CIFS) or NFS. Samba has the advantage of being easily
attached to by any windows machines you have on your network. Create DVD's
or tar to your media of choice.
An approach I take is a lunchtime cron initiated rsync job from my laptop
over a passwordless ssh connection to a RAID 1 dedicated storage box,
running Linux and ssh - relatively simple to set up from scratch. Ssh is
a running service for most fresh distribution installs.
If you need some help with the passwordless login I can post the
instructions and advise on a working cron job.
Damian
--
Damian Brasher
www.interlinux.co.uk
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