I don’t mean system files, but your personal and work files. I have been using Mint for a few years, I use Timeshift for system backups, but archived my personal files by hand. This got me curious to see what other people use. When you daily drive Linux what are your preferred tools to keep backups? I have thousands of pictures, family movies, documents, personal PDFs, etc. that I don’t want to lose. Some are cloud backed but rather haphazardly. I would like to use a more systematic approach and use a tool that is user friendly and easy to setup and program.
I am using Borg for years. So far, the tool has not let me down. I store the backups on external hard drives that are only used for backups. In addition, I save really important data at rsync.net and at Hetzer in a storage box. Which is not a problem because Borg automatically encrypts locally and for decryption in my case you need a password and a key file.
Generally speaking, you should always test whether you can restore data from a backup. No matter which tool you use. Only then you have a real backup. And an up-to-date backup should always additionally be stored off-site (cloud, at a friend’s or relative’s house, etc.). Because if the house burns down, the external hard drive with the backups next to the computer is not much use.
By the way, I would advise against using just rsync because, as the name suggests, rsync only synchronizes, so you don’t have multiple versions of a file. Which can be useful if you only notice later that a file has become defective at some point.
Borg Backup (specifically using Vorta front end)
Syncthing. I don’t want to invest into a NAS and put some load into my already greedy power bill, so I chose something decentralized. Syncthing really just works like Torrent but for your personal files: Whatever happens on the computer, also does on the phone, and on the laptop. Each have about 1TB of space and 3 times redundancy? Hell yea buddy dig in.
But that’s not really backup, is it? It just synchronizes folders.
Yes but it is a automated backup solution if you want it to. I just put important stuff in the Syncthing folder and rest assured its also on the phone incase the computers SSD caughs fire.
I think you are confusing synchronizing with backup. If you delete a file in your Syncthing folder and the deletion gets synchronized, that file is lost. If you do the same in a folder backed up by, say, Borg, you can roll back the deletion and restore the file.
I may be wrong about Syncthing, though. I haven’t used it yet, but will probably use it in the future. Just not for backup :)
This is true if you leave it at defaults but I make use of file versioning. When you flick that one on, files that are otherwise replaced or deleted will actually move to a offline .stversions folder. That is very vital I must say in case a host catches some encryptor malware eheh
I didn’t know that was a possibility. Still, it seem kind of not really what Syncthing is intended for. I mean, they even state it in their FAQ:
No. Syncthing is not a great backup application because all changes to your files (modifications, deletions, etc.) will be propagated to all your devices. You can enable versioning, but we encourage you to use other tools to keep your data safe from your (or our) mistakes.
I just found out about
syncthing
yesterday and it really is superb, it’s so easy to use even crossplatform.unison
is another syncing tool that I like, I find it better for bidirectional syncing
Rsync
I use rsync personally, but for low tech family and especially cross platform backup to network locations, Carbon Copy Cloaner is a nice interface and runs a series of rsyncs under the hood.
I almost never see rdiff-backup in such threads, so I am bringing it up now. Somehow I really like how it works and provides incremental backup with folder structures and file access still accessible directly. Works well enough for me.
I love rdiffbackup.
I use it to backup a 30 TB array and it completes in like 20 minutes if there are no changes.
There’s dozens of us! I started using it while I wrote my thesis, running a backup like every hour while writing.
Absolutely - rdiff-backup onto a local mirror set of disks. As you say, the big advantage is that the last “current” entry in the backup is available just by browsing, but I have a full history just a command away. Backups are no use if you can’t access them, and people really under-rate ease of access when evaluating their backup strategy.
Only syncthing, for me.
KDE user so for my personal files I backup with both Kups and Bups (install both) and you get the choice of cloning type or only changed files with going back in time choices. Integrates into KDE taskbar/system settings.
For redundancy, I back up my main sync folder on the desktop to my laptop using Syncthing over my WiFi/network.
Kopia repo on a separate disk dedicated to backups. Have Kopia on my servers as well sending to my local s3 gateway and second copy to wasabi.
Wholly off topic.
I feel like you should know about this if you don’t already.
Not trying to out myself, but I may be one of the few people that actually owned that shirt lol
YOU CANNOT DOXX WHAT YOU CANNOT SEE.
I may have one on now.
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I do this as well. Easy and inexpensive.
GNOME Disk Utility for backing up the whole hard drive. Otherwise, I use BackInTime.
My local backups are handled by rdiff-backup to a mirror set of disks. That means my data is versioned but easily accessible for immediate restore, and now on three disks (my SSD, and two rotating rust drives). It also makes restores as simple as copying a file if I want the latest version, or an easy command if I want an older version. And testing backups is as easy as a diff command to compare the backup version with the live version.
Having your files just be files in your backup solution is very handy. At work I don’t mind having to use an application like Veeam, because I’m being paid to do that. At home I want to see my backups quickly and easily, because I’d rather be working on my files than wrestling with backup software…
Remote backups are handled by SpiderOak, who have been fine for me for almost a decade. I also use them to synchronise my desktop and laptop computer. On my desktop SpiderOak also backs up some files in an archive area on the rotating rust mirror set - stuff that’s large and I don’t access often, so don’t need to put on my laptop but do want backed up.
I also have a USB thumbdrive that’s encrypted and used when I’m travelling to back up changes on my laptop via a simple rsync copy - just in case I have limited internet access and SpiderOak can’t do its thing…
I did also have a NAS in the mix once, but I realised that it was a waste of energy - both mine and electricity. In normal circumstances my data is on 5 locations (desktop SSD, laptop SSD, desktop mirror set, SpiderOak’s storage) and in the very worst case it’s in two locations (laptop SSD, USB thumbdrive). Rdiff-backup to the NAS was simply overkill once I’d added the local mirror set into my desktop, so I retired it.
I’d added the local mirror set because I was working with large files - data sets and VM images - and backups over the network to the NAS were taking an age. A local set of cheap disks in my desktop tower was faster and yet still fairly cheap.
Here’s my advice for your consideration:
- Simple is better than complicated.
- How you restore is more important than how you backup; perform test restores regularly.
- Performance matters; backups that take ages are backups you won’t run.
- Look to meet the 3-2-1 criteria; 3 copies, on 2 different storage systems, with at least 1 in a different geographic location. Cloud storage helps with this.
Good luck with your backup strategy!
External harddrive, drag&drop.
Timesift and a usb drive
grsync, its easy to use
Time shift with rsync, and on occasion I clonezilla the drive and save it to my NAS.