[ale] Today's lesson: rdiff-backup restores

[Jim Kinney]

Storing ammo in the same area as corrosives is not a good idea. Storing gas
powered tools like mowers and chain saws indoors is also not good. Ditto on
their fuel cans and camping fuel cannisters.

Archiving paper records in the closet with the water heater and furnace is
a bad idea.

I once heard of someone that designated the storage of family photos on a
shelf under a north facing window in a bedroom. That shelf also had the
fire escape ladder. Toss the photos to deploy the ladder.
On Feb 20, 2016 10:12 AM, "Solomon Peachy" <pizza at shaftnet.org> wrote:

> On Sat, Feb 20, 2016 at 08:40:16AM -0500, DJ-Pfulio wrote:
> > Backups include:
>
> I figure I'd throw in my two cents.
>
> I've been using rdiff-backup for a long, long time, and I tend to err on
> the side of excess.  While there is some variance between the systems,
> there's some commonality.  These are always backed up in their entirety:
>
>  * /etc
>  * /var   [not worth making this more granular IMO]
>  * /home  [if there are any non-root accounts]
>
> Then, depending on the specific system, I may include a few extras:
>
>  * Package list dumps  [ eg 'rpm -qa' ]
>  * Explicit database dumps [ eg 'pg_dumpall -c | pbzip2' ]
>  * etc etc
>
> Although those are already technically covered by the backup of /var,
> these are intended to allow for easier piecemeal restoration.
>
> The net result of this is that with 45 day retention, my backups hover
> at about 280GB for three systems.  I use an eSATA drive to hold this
> stuff.
>
> I also have bulk storage space used in a mostly write-once manner; I
> back up the important stuff (ie whatever can't be replaced, such as my
> photo archive) onto optical media.  That's running about 2 TB.
>
> Now all of this is fine and good, until I consider that my backups are
> stored in the same closet as my server.  As long as no physical disaster
> occurs, that's peachy.
>
> Then again.. one of the server's UPS batteries actually exploded about a
> year ago. Had I not been home when it happened, it would have likely
> started a fire, taking everything out at once.  Oh, and did I mention
> that I have a substantial amount of ammunition stored in that same
> closet?
>
> ...Maybe my backup strategy isn't so sound after all..
>
>  - Solomon
> --
> Solomon Peachy                         pizza at shaftnet dot org
> Delray Beach, FL                          ^^ (email/xmpp) ^^
> Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum viditur.
>
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