Should I do a full system backup on a regular basis, and what is it?

neopium · 2020-08-20 20:55:00

Hi,

Here is a little context first.

I read the Arch Wiki, that says it is advised to regularly backup your system, not just your home folder.

I liked the rsync proposed approach, so I tried to implement it.

I sort of found how to make it work, but was then told I didn't do it the right way. I was also told there that maybe backing up `/` was not a good idea after all. To be honest, the Arch Wiki didn't advise to backup `/` and I agree that this might not be very efficient. In particular, the fact that my backup is performed automatically, on a regular basis, while I'm using the system, means the backup could be inconsistent.

If I take a step back and wonder: "what is my need?" The answer is: in case of a catastrophic event (drive failure, update gone very wrong, ransomware?), I want to be back on my feet and restore my system as quickly and effortlessly as possible.

I know there is no "good" or "bad" approach to this. Some may say: reinstalling the system is easy, just save your home folder and your configuration and reinstall the system. With Arch Linux, installing the system is not *that* hard, but as I don't do it every day, it requires me to learn it again each time. In case of emergency, I don't want to do that. I want to install Arch the Arch way when I have time. That's why I chose the "backup / approach".

Are there good practices somewhere? How do *you* do it? And in particular, when something went very wrong, what did you wish you had done?

manyroads · 2020-08-20 21:07:37

There are millions of articles on the topic of backups and approaches... here is a basic overview.
https://searchdatabackup.techtarget.com … ull-Backup

neopium · 2020-08-20 21:15:44

Thanks for the link. I will definitely read it (already started, actually). In the article, they make a difference between a full backup and an incremental backup. The rsync backup approach is actually incremental, only the first backup is really a full backup. Just to specify.

neopium · 2020-08-20 21:23:35

Still, this is a fairly generic article. It does not specify *what* needs to be saved in a "full" backup. It just explains the difference between copying everything every day or just copying what's changed. While I agree with the approach (I cannot copy everything from scratch every day), it does not tell me what to backup in order to easily restore my data in case of problems.

Trilby · 2020-08-20 21:40:05

What is your question in this thread? From the first post, it sounded like you just wanted to poll what other people do. Now it sounds like you are looking for the right solution for your situation:

neopium wrote:

... it does not tell me what to backup in order to easily restore my data in case of problems.

This depends on what you consider "your data", but you already clarified this in the first post:

neopium wrote:

If I take a step back and wonder: "what is my need?" The answer is: in case of a catastrophic event (drive failure, update gone very wrong, ransomware?), I want to be back on my feet and restore my system as quickly and effortlessly as possible... In case of emergency, I don't want to [reinstall the base system]

If you want to be able to restore a backup to a clean disk without installing the OS, you will not only need a full backup of everything under / aside from pseudo-filesystems. You'd still need to partition the disk and reinstall the bootloader and/or reset efi data.

But again, what's your actual question? You seem to have answered all of your own questions already.

jasonwryan · 2020-08-20 21:41:05

neopium wrote:

...it does not tell me what to backup in order to easily restore my data in case of problems.

Nobody can tell you, as your system will be unique.

Look through /etc and see what you have changed/configured yourself (parsing pacman -Qkk will show you modified files) and decide which of these you want to backup. Similarly, if you put scripts in /usr/local/bin...

Essentially, you need to identify the directories and files that are valuable to you, and then include them in your backup regimen. Or, if you can't be bothered, just back up all of /etc...

neopium · 2020-08-20 21:44:48

Trilby wrote:

What is your question in this thread? From the first post, it sounded like you just wanted to poll what other people do. Now it sounds like you are looking for the right solution for your situation:
neopium wrote:
... it does not tell me what to backup in order to easily restore my data in case of problems.
This depends on what you consider "your data", but you already clarified this in the first post:
neopium wrote:
If I take a step back and wonder: "what is my need?" The answer is: in case of a catastrophic event (drive failure, update gone very wrong, ransomware?), I want to be back on my feet and restore my system as quickly and effortlessly as possible... In case of emergency, I don't want to [reinstall the base system]
If you want to be able to restore a backup to a clean disk without installing the OS, you will not only need a full backup of everything under / aside from pseudo-filesystems. You'd still need to partition the disk and reinstall the bootloader and/or reset efi data.
But again, what's your actual question? You seem to have answered all of your own questions already.

You are right, I wasn't clear enough in my next messages. I'm looking for return of experience. What did you wish you had saved?

Reading Jason answer, maybe /home and /etc is enough

Trilby · 2020-08-20 21:51:40

neopium wrote:

You are right, I wasn't clear enough in my next messages. I'm looking for return of experience. What did you wish you had saved?

I back up /home, that's it. Everything else is trivial to regenerate for me. But each persons needs - and each person's definition of "trivial" differes. In your next line, you again shift back from looking for general survey style input to solutions for your use case:

neopium wrote:

Reading Jason answer, maybe /home and /etc is enough

That's more than enough for my needs, but for your needs as defined in the first post, it would not be enough as this would require you to reinstall the OS.

loqs · 2020-08-20 22:05:50

neopium wrote:

Reading Jason answer, maybe /home and /etc is enough

What about /var there is no service data you want to backup?

fukawi2 · 2020-08-21 01:00:45

neopium wrote:

If I take a step back and wonder: "what is my need?" The answer is: in case of a catastrophic event (drive failure, update gone very wrong, ransomware?), I want to be back on my feet and restore my system as quickly and effortlessly as possible.

Let's spin this around 180... Pretend your have experienced a "catastrophic event", and try to recover - use a virtual machine if you don't have spare hardware to try it on. An untested backup isn't a backup anyway, so you can kill 2 birds with 1 stone: test your backup is working, and test that it has the proper RTO and RPO.

eschwartz · 2020-08-21 05:18:42

You could also do something like https://github.com/Earnestly/pkgbuilds/ … em-config/ to create and deploy your /etc configs using pacman. Then backup the list of installed packages (pacman -Qq), /home, and likely not much else.

Arch Linux

#1 2020-08-20 20:55:00

Should I do a full system backup on a regular basis, and what is it?

#2 2020-08-20 21:07:37

Re: Should I do a full system backup on a regular basis, and what is it?

#3 2020-08-20 21:15:44

Re: Should I do a full system backup on a regular basis, and what is it?

#4 2020-08-20 21:23:35

Re: Should I do a full system backup on a regular basis, and what is it?

#5 2020-08-20 21:40:05

Re: Should I do a full system backup on a regular basis, and what is it?

#6 2020-08-20 21:41:05

Re: Should I do a full system backup on a regular basis, and what is it?

#7 2020-08-20 21:44:48

Re: Should I do a full system backup on a regular basis, and what is it?

#8 2020-08-20 21:51:40

Re: Should I do a full system backup on a regular basis, and what is it?

#9 2020-08-20 22:05:50

Re: Should I do a full system backup on a regular basis, and what is it?

#10 2020-08-21 01:00:45

Re: Should I do a full system backup on a regular basis, and what is it?

#11 2020-08-21 05:18:42

Re: Should I do a full system backup on a regular basis, and what is it?

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