Backup to DVD
in [UK Linux]
|
Prev: Backup recommendation
Next: Dual boot Linux and Vista
From: Theo Markettos on 19 Dec 2008 08:19 I want to do some simple backups to DVD. I just want to copy files directly - I don't want them in tars or zips or anything like that. I'd like a program that can cope with more than one DVD and will prompt for disc changes. Something like this: $ perfectbackup /home /dev/dvd Measuring size of /home.... 500GB Building list of which files with gone on which DVD... done. This will require 120 DVDs. Creating ISO image for disc 1.... done Please insert disc 1: Creating ISO image for disc 2... Meanwhile burning disc 1... done ..... Please insert disc 37: Creating ISO image for disc 38... Meanwhile burning disc 37... The best I've found so far is 'scdbackup', but this is horribly clunky: each user has to have a separate source tree which they must put on their path, and when you alter the options you have to recompile it. I really don't want to pollute my path with a random source tree. Any have any other suggestions? ('Craft my own' and 'don't use DVDs' aren't allowed :) Theo
From: Martin Gregorie on 19 Dec 2008 10:14 On Fri, 19 Dec 2008 13:19:48 +0000, Theo Markettos wrote: > I want to do some simple backups to DVD. I just want to copy files > directly - I don't want them in tars or zips or anything like that. I'd > like a program that can cope with more than one DVD and will prompt for > disc changes. > About the best I found was Mondo - http://www.mondorescue.org/ It does multi-disk backup to CD,DVD,tape or hard disk. I've using it and was pretty happy with it. It compressed the hell out of the stuff it was backing up and was rather slow as a consequence, but that was about my only criticism. Think 4 hour backup on an 866 MHz box with 256 MB RAM. IIRC it was fine with Fedora 6, but it used a busybox utility that clashed with one in Fedora 7: at that point I switched over to rsync and and the Formac USB drive. As the current release works with F9 I assume they solved that problem. ----- You could always try using rsync with a rewritable DVD, but that's never going to cope if the data you want to back up exceeds the DVD capacity. In any case, you'll probably end up scripting it since you'll want to back up more than just /home - you really need /usr/local and bits of the /var tree (e.g. /var/spool/mail, /var/named and/or /var/www etc. depending on what packages you are using). -- martin@ | Martin Gregorie gregorie. | Essex, UK org
From: Theo Markettos on 19 Dec 2008 10:43 Martin Gregorie <martin(a)see.sig.for.address.invalid> wrote: > About the best I found was Mondo - http://www.mondorescue.org/ > > It does multi-disk backup to CD,DVD,tape or hard disk. > > I've using it and was pretty happy with it. It compressed the hell out of > the stuff it was backing up and was rather slow as a consequence, but > that was about my only criticism. Think 4 hour backup on an 866 MHz box > with 256 MB RAM. That looks useful. Thanks to your introduction I didn't run away screaming at the thought of the complexity. I don't want to clone DVDs, I don't want sector backups, I don't want a GUI, I don't want to run on Windows, I don't want timed backups, I don't want incremental backups, I don't want archiving, I don't want compression, etc etc. Knowing I don't want all these things didn't help me find what I /did/ want :( > IIRC it was fine with Fedora 6, but it used a busybox utility that > clashed with one in Fedora 7: at that point I switched over to rsync and > and the Formac USB drive. As the current release works with F9 I assume > they solved that problem. busybox? For something that's just a nice way of doing mkisofs+cdrecord? Or is that something to do with building bootable discs? > You could always try using rsync with a rewritable DVD, but that's never > going to cope if the data you want to back up exceeds the DVD capacity. <shudder> A recipe on how to thrash the drive mechanism I imagine and would probably take a week. UDF might be a possibility, but I really just want a nice and simple ISO-based DVD :) > In any case, you'll probably end up scripting it since you'll want to > back up more than just /home - you really need /usr/local and bits of > the /var tree (e.g. /var/spool/mail, /var/named and/or /var/www etc. > depending on what packages you are using). I'm just doing the equivalent of tarring up particular projects I'm working on, so I don't need to worry about being able to reconstruct a system or boot off the result. Theo
From: Dave Liquorice on 19 Dec 2008 10:18 On 19 Dec 2008 13:19:48 +0000 (GMT), Theo Markettos wrote: > The best I've found so far is 'scdbackup', but this is horribly clunky: Have a look at DAR, donno if it's any less clunky mind. I "use" it in that it is now part of SME Server as part of the built in backup system. -- Cheers Dave.
From: Martin Gregorie on 19 Dec 2008 14:47
On Fri, 19 Dec 2008 15:43:23 +0000, Theo Markettos wrote: > > busybox? For something that's just a nice way of doing > mkisofs+cdrecord? Or is that something to do with building bootable > discs? > Quite. I don't know why it needs it at all seeing that its backing up a full-sized computer. Maybe, as you can do a restore to bare iron by booting off the backup DVD, it uses/used the busybox to pare down the size of the recovery system. -- martin@ | Martin Gregorie gregorie. | Essex, UK org | |