Re: [PLUG] Backup packages

["Will Dyson" <will.dyson@gmail.com>]

On 9/9/07, Paul L. Snyder <plsnyder@drexel.edu> wrote:

> Bacula looks like it has a lot of moving parts.  Has anybody played
> with rdiff-backup?

Bacula does seem to be aimed at larger deployments (see how much of
the manual is about stuff like tape auto-changers). But the minimum
complexity of a Bacula setup has gone down in recent years, especially
since you can now use a SQLite database.

I personally use a simple wrapper script for rdiff-backup and rsync.
It runs rdiff-backup on /etc and /home, then plain rsync on the rest.
I backup to an external drive that is usually not connected to my
computer(s), so it is no big deal for me to trigger the script
manually when I want to do a backup. A script to bug me via email when
I let it go too long is on my to-do list.

Unfortunately, rdiff-backup can be a bit fragile in the face of
interrupted backups. It can require manual intervention to unwedge
(usually just running it with the -f option). I've even had to delete
the snapshot history once or twice. Since the most recent backup is
not affected by this problem, I can deal with it. But you should be
aware of the issue.

I also use rsnapshot (http://www.rsnapshot.org/) to keep a few week's
worth of "oh no! I didn't mean to  rm *that*" backups on my desktop.
Rsnapshot uses the hardlinks trick to make every snapshot seem like a
full backup. Unfortunately, its snapshot ageing scheme does not deal
well with occasional manually triggered backups.

Areca Backup (http://areca.sourceforge.net/) looks pretty neat, but
I've never tried it.

-- 
Will Dyson
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