Reposting to the list On 04/02/12 04:35, Gary Roach wrote: > To your questions:
<top post re-edited as interleaved style> > > On 01/-10/-28163 11:59 AM, Scott Ferguson wrote: >> On 03/02/12 13:45, Gary Roach wrote: >> >>> I have 3 computer running on Debian Squeeze. One has an unused >>> hard drive that I wish to use as a backup disk for all 3 >>> computers. Is there a simple way to do this that can be >>> completely automated. >>> >>> Gary >>> >>> >>> >> Yes - there are a large number of ways. (as "apt-cache search >> backups" will show you) >> >> Is there a particular box you wish to control the backups from? > Yes there is one box that should control the backup process. >> Is it local? > All 3 computers are in the same room. >> Are you a GUI user or do you prefer the command line? > I don't care whether GUI or command line just as long as it is > straight forward. The "straight forward" bit will depend on how well you understand your requirements. :-) >> If the former - which desktop are you using? > I use KDE. >> >> How often do you want to run backups? How much space do you have >> to store backups? How long to you intend to keep backups? How big >> are the backups you plan on making? >> > I want to backup every day. I would prefer incremental backups with > a full backup say 1 per month. A full backup will probably take no > more than 5% of the hard drive space. I would prefer that the full > backup over write or erase the older backups. > Good questions I missed (at least) one.... so I'll answer it myself ;-p If one of those boxen is a database server use LVM snapshots not selective rsync. > > Gary >> >> Kind regards >> >> NOTES: "full backup" is this instance means everything required to restore from bare metal (as opposed to "full data backup"). The combination of a full backup, and an archive of incremental backups can allow you to restore a choice of points in time. If you only want full data backup capability - the suggested daily backup utilities can do that. CLI suggestion:- ;rsync on a daily basis, make it a cron job, after the first run backups will on copy changed files. Very fast, minimal space required. ;fsarchiver for your full backups (it'll cope with ext4), requires nfs or samba. ;for convenience use WOL (if available) and run the backups during your downtime. ;not a backup strategy, but useful for recovery purposes - apt-cacher GUI suggestion:- ;kbackintime for daily backups - for network support, I found fish unreliable, the alternative is sshfs and autofs. ;FOG[*1] - I use dedicated boxen for it, but you could install it onto the backup box, or a USBkey. These are by no means the best, or only solutions. My preference is for the cli solutions, point and click clients prefer KBackInTime. Now that your requirements are known others will be better able to give you useful suggestions. Some useful references:- http://wiki.debian.org/BackupAndRecovery Kind regards [*1]http://www.fogproject.org/ -- Iceweasel/Firefox extensions for finding answers to Debian questions:- https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/collections/Scott_Ferguson/debian/ NOTE: new update available for Debian Buttons (New button for querying Debian Developer Package):- https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/debian-buttons/ -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/4f2c6fd0.2070...@gmail.com