[CoLoCo] Example backup scripts

[David L. Willson]

The question of how to back things up comes up pretty often.  I like to take advantage
of the capabilities of Linux by using hard-links and rsync in a relatively simple
home-brewed script that I just customize a little and drop into root's crontab.  So,
take a look through these two scripts that I am using at customer-sites and see if you
can't whip up something for your own use.

They basically copy the last successful backup into a new tree for the day as
hard-links, and then update that tree with rsync.

You can reduce historical granularity, or shorten the history window, by deleting
old/in-between backups.  You'll recover an appropriate amount of space on your backup
volume and still have "full" backups in all the days you don't delete.  Each day's
folder is really a full backup, it just doesn't double-store unchanged files, so each
day's backup only takes up space for it's differences.

FWIW, I hear from Kevin Fries that BackupPC does all this and more, I just haven't
gotten around to trying it out.  Honestly, I think running my own script is more fun.

David L. Willson
Trainer/Engineer/Consultant
MCT, MCSE, Linux+
(720) 333-LANS

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