Re: [gentoo-user] Backup questions

[Dale]

Mick wrote:
> On Thursday, 9 August 2018 09:18:43 BST Bill Kenworthy wrote:
>> On 08/08/18 11:43, Dale wrote:
>>> Howdy,
>>>
>>> Long story short that leads up to my questions, I paid off some debt.
>> Hi Dale,
>>
>>     what you are talking about is not a real backup but a single copy of
>> your data that may or may not be complete (the delete option you
>> mention) at a single point in time - not quite as useful as a proper
>> versioned backup.  Whatever your choice, also look at the restore
>> procedure - very important.
> Well, a static mirror is a full backup at that point in time.  If the backed
> up data changes little over time, it is a valid backup, which can prove its
> worth if/when the original drive dies, or files are deleted accidentally on
> the original.

And that is the result I was wanting.  The added benefit of a plain file
copy, portability.  If I wanted to, I could take the drive to a friend,
plug it in and watch videos directly from the drive.  I could also copy
them to the friends computer if I wanted to without any special
software.  I just need a basic, no frills copy that I can go to if I
lose the originals.  Most of this is video and pictures where once saved
will never change again.  I'm not needing anything fancy for sure.  I
might add, I used to do similar when doing system backups.  I'd boot
from a DVD tool such as sysrescue, mount the partitions and then copy
everything over to a second drive. 


>
> On the points Dale raised:
>
> The --delete option will remove from the destination any files which no longer
> exist on the source.  So if you delete photo-1 on the source and then run
> rsync, photo-1 *will* be deleted from the full back up, to mirror what is
> currently available on the source directory.
>
> Here is where incremental/differential backup strategies can be of use, in
> case some time in the relatively near future you change your mind and wish you
> never had deleted that old photo-1.  The same may apply to user config files,
> if you stop using an application, manually clean/delete its config files from
> your home and rsync --delete thereafter.  If in the near future you review
> your position and decide you wanted that application after all and the 2 weeks
> you had spent configuring it would be of use again, with the --delete option
> your config files will be gone from the backup.  So, use --delete judiciously.
>
> rsync can on its own provide you with incremental and differential backups,
> using hard links to the full backup directory, so as to avoid duplication and
> minimise storage space usage.  This means that incremental backups take only a
> fraction of the space and additional disks or enclosures may be redundant.
> Take a look at the --backup, --backup-dir, and --link-dest, options.
>
> As others have posted there are a number of applications which use rsync as a
> back end and have scripted with config files its options.  There's also quite
> a number of bash scripts on the interwebs offering a starting point if you
> prefer to hack your own.
>
> With regards to heat and humidity I suggest you take a look at the
> manufacturer's specifications, both for the enclosure and for the drives.
> Invariably environmental thresholds are printed on labels on the devices
> themselves, or you could google using the part numbers off them.
>
> HTH.


I'll look into that option.  I've got a lot going on, Mom in hospital,
me trying to do some cleaning that is otherwise difficult to do when Mom
is here, plus a few other things that are routine as well.  Trying to
keep my head above water here.  lol  Eventually, I'll find the best way
since I've had some good ideas mentioned in these replies.  If I do go
the software backup route, I've got some good recommendations here on
what to look into.  If I continue the rsync route, I've got a couple new
options to look into.  The idea of putting the drives in a cooler was
also a good one that I hadn't thought of.  That would help control the
temperature fluctuations for sure.  I'm not sure about the fridge part
tho.  Space is limited since I have a lot of there. 

Thanks for the info. 

Dale

:-)  :-)