[ale] Backup Nirvana - bootable backup

[Ron Frazier]

John,

Thanks for the note, sorry to be so long in replying.  I think I've been
doing almost nothing but email for the last few days.

See comments in line.

On Mon, 2011-01-17 at 07:14 -0500, John wrote:
> Two identically sized disks.
> 
> dd if=/dev/sda of=/dev/sdb  bs=102400
> 
> Cloned. OS agnostic.  Gets everything (including partition table, mbr, 
> and unused disk areas).

A couple of people have mentioned dd to me.  I have to say I'm not too
familiar with it, but may have to look it up.

I generally prefer a GUI based system which gives me the following
advantages: easy to use intuitive and well explained options (if
properly designed), ability to go back or forward through setup screens,
confirmation of action to be taken, status updates while processing,
ability to cancel the process, and access to help.

> 
> How you connect the 2nd disk is up to you, I use eSATA directly on the 
> laptop.  Key thing is to boot from other media, like a flash USB OS, not 
> either disk.  This isn't my backup strategy, just my OS cloning one.  
> The "outputfile" can be on another machine, over the network, by 
> combining pipes and ssh. GigE is nice. Once on the other machine, I 
> create a text file that shows the exact command used to create the file 
> so restores are easy to figure out.  I've used this on 3.5" disks that 
> weren't the same size, provided the target was larger. Worked there 
> too.  Of course, we all know to keep the OS partitions as small as 
> possible and place data on different partitions so the clone stuff 
> doesn't need to be too large.  This is an easy way to migrate to larger 
> disks when needed, then use gparted to expand partitions.
> 

Doing this over the network to something like a NAS sounds like a cool
idea.  I don't have a NAS right now, so I'm using external drives
attached to USB.

> Cloning does not replace incremental backups or a normal backup 
> strategy, since the source can be infected the day before you clone and 
> hadn't realized the problem yet.
> 

Here's my current strategy for personal computers, based on limited
resources.  It would have to be adapted to business needs, etc.  Clone
each PC's HDD to an external USB drive each week or two.  Temporarily
install the cloned drive and test it.  This is easier to do on a laptop
than a desktop.  Have all critical data backed up online via Jungledisk
on Amazon's S3 servers.  In the event of a failure, install the clone
drive within minutes, restore additional data from Jungledisk, and
reinstall any new applications from their source.

When, I get the money, I'd like to add a second clone of each drive and
alternate between each clone for backup each week.

Sincerely,

Ron

> 
> On 01/16/2011 11:26 PM, Ron Frazier wrote:
> > Hello all,
> >
> > I wanted to pass along a preliminary report on an amazing backup
> > experience I had today.  I've been using PC's pretty much ever since
> > they were invented for consumer use, and backing them up most of that
> > time.  It's always a pain, and doing a restore is a royal pain even with
> > a backup.
> >
> > My backup strategy has 2 parts:
>   ...

-- 

(PS - If you email me and don't get a quick response, you might want to
call on the phone.  I get about 300 emails per day from alternate energy
mailing lists and such.  I don't always see new messages very quickly.)

Ron Frazier

770-205-9422 (O)   Leave a message.
linuxdude AT c3energy.com