*BSD News Article 48821


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Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
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From: sundans@agora.rdrop.com (Craig Keenan)
Subject: Backing up the whole 9 yards...???
Sender: news@agora.rdrop.com (David Greenman)
Nntp-Posting-Host: agora.rdrop.com
Organization: RainDrop Laboratories
Message-ID: <DDHIzE.25r@agora.rdrop.com>
Date: Fri, 18 Aug 1995 02:30:49 GMT
Lines: 35

I would like to ask a frequently unanswered question.  Many of us out 
here in userland have managed to come up to speed on our various FreeBSD 
systems, but I think the information regarding backups and how to manage 
them has been addressed very litle.  Asking this question in various 
places (usenet, mail lists, rabid foaming linux irc sessions) yields many 
different answers:  cpio, tar, dump, buy a scsi tape, buy a Colorado QIC 
tape, (or don't buy this & that).  What it boils down to is:

1)  What is the simplest AND most complete way of backing up an ENTIRE 
filesystem, so that in the case of something disastrous, Joe User would 
at least have a nice mirror of his system xx days ago.  Also, what is the 
best way to perform a recovery from ground 0 (maybe a good 
backup-recovery floppy would be good here??  There's an idea...).

2)  What seems to be the best philosophies for different types of systems 
(ie.  Joe's home-piss-around-with-Doom system, slightly critical systems 
like maybe an ISP user database, and super-critical like Barney Clark's 
Artifical Heart GUI Interface [running FreeBSD -stable, of course]).  
I've heard of full backups every week, with 4-hourly incrementals; every 
month full backups only; and lotsa other schemes.

3)  Is there any good free package out there that can automate a large 
percentage of this, or does it usually boil down to each and every user 
tailoring his own backup script?

  This might be a good thing to merge into the handbook too.  Please post 
your opinions regarding backup strategies/software...  I will try to 
summarize this all up in some knd of document (yes, I'm volunteering to 
be Editor in Cheif of this, no problem).  Should be able to help out lots 
of folks, including my [at this time] ignorant self.

Thank you,
CK

PS:  Anythings goes.... hardware, software, porno-jpegs (well, almost...)