One of the frequently asked questions regarding Linux system administration is,
“How do I backup my system?” While backup on a Microsoft platform is pretty straight forward (click
on the backup button or select backup from the Start menu), Linux backups can be quite intimidating
if you’re not familiar with the UNIX paradigm of files and devices. This column will explore the
devices and methods involved in protecting the data that exists on your Linux systems.
One of the frequently asked questions regarding Linux system administration is, “How do I backup my system?” While backup on a Microsoft platform is pretty straight forward (click on the backup button or select backup from the Start menu), Linux backups can be quite intimidating if you’re not familiar with the UNIX paradigm of files and devices. This column will explore the devices and methods involved in protecting the data that exists on your Linux systems.
What is a Backup?
In the simplest terms, it is the process of making copies of your data onto alternate media (usually removable) in order to allow the recovery of that data in case the original is lost. A backup can simply be a copy (’cp’) of a file or files to another location, or it can be a stream of data that is written out by a special program (’tar’) to a special device or location.
Many admins automatically equate backup to tape drives, but this isn’t necessarily true. Under Linux, or any other UNIX variant, backups can be made to files on the existing filesystems, alternate filesystems, tape drives, remote systems, and even tape drives on remote systems. Also, from a user-level perspective, there are no “tape drives” or “Zip drives”, just files (as we will explain shortly).
What Device Should I Use?
There are a vast number of devices out there that are marketed as being “perfect for system backup”….
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