I have the impression that zfs is a safer and more reliable system than ext4, so maybe I should want zfs, but is it working on Linux? Is it hard to get it installed for use with an external drive? I guess $0.06/GB-month is a good deal if you have a small amount of data to backup. Mike On Fri, 4 Sep 2015, Linda Kateley wrote: > So.. I have to weigh in here.. I don't know if people know i do the classes > for freenas, but you can use it as a gui for both formatting drives and > replication.. and it's free. and it has time machine.. > > In my environment I just has a small nas box that i backup to all of my > systems including my macs. > > I just saw rsync.net will take zfs receives and charge .06 per GB per month > for zfs. > > linda > > On 9/4/15 2:28 PM, Jeff Chapin wrote: >> The script would take a little tweaking, but it could work. >> >> I, personally, know that I would get lazy at some point and fail to swap >> the drives for months on end. I would consider taking one of the drives to >> both locations, and getting an initial backup of each location, and then >> mirroring that to the other drive -- and then have both locations back up >> to both drives. Alternatively, you could backup both drives to the local >> drive, and then mirror the two drives(you could do hourly local backups, >> and nightly remote copies). Since rsync only transfers the differences, >> once you have the initial backup, it's likely that each day's change is >> fairly small. If you use the flag to make rsync aware of the hardlinks, you >> could presumably replicate a full copy of the day's hourly backups fairly >> quickly. >> >> >> On Fri, Sep 4, 2015 at 2:17 PM, Mike Miller <mbmiller+l at gmail.com >> <mailto:mbmiller+l at gmail.com>> wrote: >> >> That is really cool! I'll have to try something like that. I'm >> thinking a good strategy is to have two drives, both with all the >> same stuff on them, and I'll use them both to backup all my Linux >> boxes (home, office, laptops). I'll just switch between home and >> office every week or so. That way if my house burns down or my >> office is burglarized, I still have a copy of everything from last >> week at the other location. >> >> Does that seem reasonable? The thing I'm not sure of is how that >> strategy would work with the "time machine" concept -- I'd be >> using two drives and swapping them weekly. >> >> Mike >> >> >> >> On Fri, 4 Sep 2015, Jeff Chapin wrote: >> >> Looking at the rsync command you gave, it looks correct -- but >> rsync can do >> so much more when backing up! >> >> Using the magic of rsync, and the magic of hardlinks, you can >> make a full >> backup, in incremental time and space. Rsync has, built into >> it, the >> ability to compare your most recent backup files with existing >> backup >> files, and if they are they same, use a hard link, and copy >> them over if >> they differ. This allows you to store just the files that >> change -- but it >> looks like a full backup every time it runs. This way, you can >> keep, say, >> hourly backups for the last week -- and recover an >> accidentally deleted or >> altered file, even after the latest backup has run. >> >> For more details: >> https://blog.interlinked.org/tutorials/rsync_time_machine.html >> >> >> >> On Fri, Sep 4, 2015 at 8:21 AM, T L <tlunde at gmail.com >> <mailto:tlunde at gmail.com>> wrote: >> >> Assuming that you have NOTHING on the drive that you care >> about, I would >> remove the factory partitioning and create a new GPT table >> with parted. >> >> Then, format that as ext4. >> On Sep 3, 2015 3:17 PM, "Mike Miller" >> <mbmiller+l at gmail.com <mailto:mbmiller%2Bl at gmail.com>> wrote: >> >> How to format? >> >> I have a couple of Linux boxes that I would like to >> regularly backup to a >> 5 TB external drive. It seems like it would be a good >> idea to format that >> drive with ext4. Can I just do that with gparted? >> The drive comes with >> NTFS format. Are there any issues I should know about? >> >> >> Which directories to back up? >> >> What really needs to be backed up? I guess if the >> system totally failed >> I'd install Linux (Ubuntu) again. Of course /home is >> needed, but >> /usr/local and /opt often have programs I've installed >> and /etc will have a >> bunch of settings. I guess /var can have some >> important stuff. Are >> crontabs stored in /var? >> >> >> Which software to use for backup? >> >> I guess I want only to have in backup what is on the >> originating drive. >> So if I have deleted a file, I want it to be deleted >> on the backup drive, >> too. I assume rsync can do this. Would this be correct?: >> >> rsync -av --update --delete /home /usr/local /etc /var >> /opt /media/me/back >> >> >> TIA! >> >> Mike >> _______________________________________________ >> TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota >> tclug-list at mn-linux.org <mailto:tclug-list at mn-linux.org> >> http://mailman.mn-linux.org/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota >> tclug-list at mn-linux.org <mailto:tclug-list at mn-linux.org> >> http://mailman.mn-linux.org/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list >> >> >> >> >> -- Jeff Chapin >> President, CedarLug, retired >> President, UNIPC, "I'll get around to it" >> President, UNI Scuba Club >> Senator, NISG, retired >> >> _______________________________________________ >> TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota >> tclug-list at mn-linux.org <mailto:tclug-list at mn-linux.org> >> http://mailman.mn-linux.org/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list >> >> >> >> >> -- >> Jeff Chapin >> President, CedarLug, retired >> President, UNIPC, "I'll get around to it" >> President, UNI Scuba Club >> Senator, NISG, retired >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota >> tclug-list at mn-linux.org >> http://mailman.mn-linux.org/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list > > -- > Linda Kateley > Kateley Company > Skype ID-kateleyco > http://kateleyco.com > >