[K12OSN] backup question

[Sudev Barar]

On Sun, 2005-06-19 at 22:16 -0700, Robert Arkiletian wrote:
> On 6/19/05, Sudev Barar <sudev at mantraonline.com> wrote:
> > No, rsync will copy image/file as it is on the disk at the point of
> > time. Thus even if one is working on a document (say in OO) the file as
> > it exists will be synchronised. The updated file (once the document
> > being edited is saved) would be copied only in the next sync.
> 
> Are you sure? I wonder why I thought you could not cp the / filesystem
> unless you boot from another / system (ie live cd)?

If you sync'ng on to the same disk the....but why would you do that? The
whole purpose it sync onto another disc or preferably on another disk on
another machine (AND another location!!)

> > OTOH why sync "/"? Since most of the directories here are static you
> > should sync "/var"
> 
> Mainly because of program updates. But since it is mostly static then
> rsync should be very fast the second time around.
So let it be run less often as another cron job. And yes it will be
faster if not much is to be done.

To over come issue of system crashing and spoiling the sync we work on a
three generation rsync. Generation one (working server) syncs to
generation two on hourly basis. Generation two rsync is run on weekly
basis. So if we have to restore from generation two only one hours of
work at max is lost. We could do the generation two to three on faster
frequency but this works for us.

I find rsync fast and easy to use even when the files are being worked
upon and it runs with exclude list so that no essential things like
background and such settings (usually the ".*" files) can be excluded.

BUT I must admit I have not used backuppc extensively enough to go
against what you mentioned in you other post.
-- 
Sudev Barar
Learning Linux