Topic: USB and Tape Backup Configuration

[anivio]

Hi!

I would like to use usb and tape backup together (disk to disk to tape) but i have some configuration problems.

Actually i have 15 Gb data to backup.

1) USB Backup (1TB)

Mo - Fr -> incemental backup
Su -> full backup

Each backup file have to be stored 60 days on the usb disk. After this period the files should be overwritten with an new backup.

How to set this configuration?

Would you recommend to make every day a full backup and store the files only 30 days?

2) Tape Backup

I have configured flexbackup to use dump instead of tar because it is much easier to restore a single file with the right file/user permissions.

I have used the following commands:

Code: [Select]

/sbin/e-smith/config setprop flexbackup Type dump
/sbin/e-smith/expand-template /etc/flexbackup.conf
Is it possible that this changes will cause an error?

Will an update override these changes?

I have read that dump is outdated and may cause errors during restoration if only one single file has an error.

What do you think?

3) E-Mail after a backup finished

Is it possible to get an e-mail after backup (usb and tape) with information if the backup was successfully, has finished with erros, how long it needed?

Thanks again for your help.

[Stefano]

2) Tape Backup

I have configured flexbackup to use dump instead of tar because it is much easier to restore a single file with the right file/user permissions.

I have used the following commands:

Code: [Select]

/sbin/e-smith/config setprop flexbackup Type dump
/sbin/e-smith/expand-template /etc/flexbackup.conf
Is it possible that this changes will cause an error?

I can't see why, as they are correct

Will an update override these changes?

no

I have read that dump is outdated and may cause errors during restoration if only one single file has an error.

What do you think?

each kind of file archiving has pros and cons..
you should always make full restore tests

3) E-Mail after a backup finished

Is it possible to get an e-mail after backup with information if the backup was successfully, has finished with erros, how long it needed?

you should always receive a mail after backup.. if not, something is wrogn, so you should go in bugzilla

[janet]

anivio

Actually i have 15 Gb data to backup.

That is not very much data so is easy to manage.

USB Backup (1TB)
Each backup file have to be stored 60 days on the usb disk. After this period the files should be overwritten with an new backup.

Configure for a 28 day cycle and 4 backup sets.
On set0, that will do a full backup on the first day and then 27 more days worth of incremental backups.
Then set1 will be created with another full initial backup and 27 daily incrementals.
Then set2, then set3.
At the end of 4 x 28 days, set0 will get overwritten and so on thereafter.
Each full backup plus incrementals will be retained for a minimum of 56 days, and the earlier sets for even longer than that before being overwritten.

A 1TB USB disk should have sufficient capacity for this.
Note you should really have a second disk as a minimum and rotate the backup disk offsite either daily or weekly.

Alternatively you can make a full backup every day, just configure for a 1 day cycle with 60 sets. That should just fit onto a 1TB disk, as long as your data does not increase significantly. Again you should have a second disk as a minimum and rotate it offsite periodically (ideally daily).

Is it possible to get an e-mail after backup (usb and tape) with information if the backup was successfully, has finished with erros, how long it needed?

This happens by default.
I suggest you start using the backup functions, at least for test purposes to discover the built in functionality.

[anivio]

Thank you.

I will try the backup today.

Note you should really have a second disk as a minimum and rotate the backup disk offsite either daily or weekly.

My tape backup rotates daily. It is recommend that my usb disk backup rotates daily too?

If yes, i have too label each usb drive and put the labels in fstab, right?

What do you mean with offsite? Shall i disconnect the drive daily or can i have have both drives connected? If i disconnect the disks daily i think all disks must have the same label.

At the end of 4 x 28 days, set0 will get overwritten and so on thereafter.
Each full backup plus incrementals will be retained for a minimum of 56 days, and the earlier sets for even longer than that before being overwritten.

I do not understand this. If i have a set of 4 x 28 each backup plus incrementals will be retained for 112 days. After 112 days set 0 will get overwritten again. Do i think wrong?

[janet]

anivio

If you have a tape backup and a USB backup, then it is less important to have a second USB drive, as you already have backup redundancy.
If you only had USB backup, then yes you should rotate daily.
Each situation is subject to the administrators requirements & data security policy for that site.

As you only have the one USB backup configured and one location specified that gets mounted, then I think the labels on each disk would be the same, when you have rotating USB disks.


Offsite means removed offsite periodically eg daily or weekly depending on your local site policy.

Re 112 days age:
Keep in mind that to restore from an incremental you also need the original full backup for that set, so effectively the whole set is the same "age" as the most recently created daily incremental file.
So after 4 sets have been created and you are about to do a full backup that overwrites set0
set3 is really only 1 day old
set2 is really only 28 days old
set1 is really only 56 days old
set0 is really only 84 days old, but is just about to be overwritten today so it will be gone then and has no age

Therefore the oldest reliable "age" is 56 days for a whole set (or greater depending which day you want to restore from).
See what I am getting at ?

[anivio]

Thank you. I have understood it and everythink seems to work mostly ok.

I have got this morning a few e-mails.

1) USB Backup

Seems to work fine.

2) Tape backup

Some files were not found. Maybe i can ignore this.

Code: [Select]

lexbackup version 1.2.1 (http://flexbackup.sourceforge.net)
/etc/flexbackup.conf syntax OK

$keyfile not found in config: default=00-index-key
$buffer_fill_pct not found in config: default=75
$buffer_pause_usec not found in config: default=100
|------------------------------------------------------------
| Checking 'buffer' on this machine... Ok
| Checking /bin/sh on this machine... bash1
|------------------------------------------------------------
3) Cron E-Mail

Shall i insert my country name, my state and so in the file conf-mod_ssl? Is it important?

Code: [Select]

etc/cron.daily/conf-mod_ssl:

You are about to be asked to enter information that will be incorporated
into your certificate request.
What you are about to enter is what is called a Distinguished Name or a DN.
There are quite a few fields but you can leave some blank
For some fields there will be a default value,
If you enter '.', the field will be left blank.
-----
Country Name (2 letter code) [GB]:State or Province Name (full name) [Berkshire]:Locality Name (eg, city) [Newbury]:Organization Name (eg, company) [My Company Ltd]:Organizational Unit Name (eg, section) []:Common Name (eg, your name or your server's hostname) []:Email Address []: