Hi Guys,

Now that my linux box has got above 8months in maturity, I really don't want to have to do a fresh install should something go wrong....

For this reason, how can i back up my system without using something like mondo or commercial software like norton ghost.

I was thinking about simply compressing my whole / into a .tar file and burning it to DVD. Will this work? If so, do i need to exclude any files (/dev /proc /tmp??) and how do i go about this? I do not have enough space on my main drive so would like to create the .tar file direct onto an external USB hard drive.....

Any help is appreciated, and if i can get this to work i'll write a short wiki on it....

I back up my system the way that you describe. Rather than put all of / in one tarball I put each of the base directories (/etc, /var, /usr and so on) in tarballs. If you try to tar /proc you will get an error message that does not stop the backup. Backing up /tmp is a waste of time.

I have a script which tars the files, creates an iso file system in a spare partition, and then uses cdrecord to burn a CD backup. Actually it takes 3 CDs to back everything up so I have three scripts.

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Steve Stites

Your solution lies within this thread.

Don't suppose that i could be really cheeky and ask for the scripts . I'm not proficient (or confident) enough in programming to write a workable script.... (grovels and looks hopeful)

Cheers

More specifically, #6 is probably what you are talking about:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...67&postcount=6

Here is one of the scripts. The other two are similar enough that there is no point in posting all three.


http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...d.php?t=171362

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Steev Stites

Cheers Jailbait.

This doesn't back up the entire system tho does it? Also how hard is it to restore afterwards? For example, if i tarred by home directory in the same way, and then did a fresh install on another machine, could i then just untar the backups i'd made and this would restore things exactly....

It takes 3 CDs to hold my entire backup. This script produces the first CD. The other 2 scripts get the remainder of the system.

Yes, you restore using tar.

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Steve Stites

Sorry Steve,

You must be getting exasperated at this point, but i want to get this right

1. I take it the other 2 CDs include the omitted directories /srv /sys /usr (at least on my ubuntu system these seem to be the ones ommitted from your script)
2. Should i (or is it not possible) to include /media /mnt /proc and should i include links to the backup files of initrd.img and initrd.img.old??

Thanks for your patience.
Cheers

1. Yes.

2. If you tar /media or /mnt then you will backup whatever removable file systems you happen to have mounted when you do the backup. So don't backup /media and /mnt.

The contents of /proc are not really files. They are pointers to entry points in the kernel. If you try to tar /proc you will get an error message and tar will skip over /proc.

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Steve Stites

Cheers.

Will have a go at that....