Etienne Robillard <robillard.etienne () gmail ! com> wrote
> i kinda like cpio for fast backup of filesystems... for large media
> files (think anime movies) -- I think its generally best to just
> burn them on a iso..
I have found rsync to an external usb hard disk to work very nicely;
these are now cheap and readily available up to over a terabyte.
Here are a few notes from my experience using this strategy for the
past several years:
* With rsync, the initial backup does a full copy, but then future
backups automatically only copy changed files.
* I found that performance went from "painfully slow" to "ok" when I
switched my external disks from ext2fs to ffs mounted softdep,noatime.
* I have had no problems with single files as big as 5 GB.
* For extra disaster-insurance I actually use a pair of external disks,
one at home and one at my office. I swap them every week or so.
* Backups can be a security risk, since anyone who steals the backup
medium has instant access to all the files stored there. This is a
great use for encrypting filesystems, eg svnd, raidctl, or cfs (ports).
* Backups need to be hassle-free and as tired-system-administrator--proof
as possible, so it's good to script the process. I use scripts like
the following:
#!/bin/sh
set -x
rsync -aHESvv --delete \
--exclude '/home/jonathan/crypt/*' \
--exclude '/mnt/oxygen/home/jonathan/crypt/*' \
/home/jonathan/ /mnt/oxygen/home/jonathan/
This works fine except that the --exclude options are not honored
(files under those directories are still copied). I don't know what's
wrong there...
--
-- "Jonathan Thornburg [remove -animal to reply]"
<jth...@astro.indiana-zebra.edu>
Dept of Astronomy, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, USA
"Washing one's hands of the conflict between the powerful and the
powerless means to side with the powerful, not to be neutral."
-- quote by Freire / poster by Oxfam
