How do you backup on Linux Manjaro?

[postcd]

How you are doing your backups on Linux Manjaro (Arch)?

Here is what i do as a noob on Linux and problems it has:

1. Backup of the system drive - I have setup Timeshift GUI app (which is installed by default in Manjaro). To keep my system drive backups (i defined /home and /root to be also backed up and excluded my external drives mount points)
   The location of a backup is system drive itself (which is problem. I have not set ext. drive because of the performance reason and also because i seem to be unable to define the location on ext. drive - timeshift force /timeshift on main drive mountpoint (i do not want to keep it unencrypted and can not set encrypted mount point on that ext. drive).
   So this is one problem. I do not want to create yet another bash script to backup latest timeshift backup to the location of choice. I wanted something all in one. Maybe i can use pre-backup task in later mentioned Grsync to do the backup, or call the bash script (which is what i do not want as i want all in one if possible instead of fragmenting backup things)

2. Backing up external drive - I have FreeFileSync GUI app which is one of the best cross-platform tools for synchronization, but maybe due to 4 million files, i have seen it to be crashing. So i am currently on Grsync which does the job, except one problem:
   It waste my drive writing cycles, because it does not detect moved files, so instead of moving existing file within backup drive, it mark the file deleted and copy the file from source drive to backup drive new location.

[maycne.sonahoz]

This is my backup scheme on my desktop computer. I also have a laptop, which is more for light work outside of home, without backup but with synchronized folders with the desktop.

• System partition
  No backup. If need be, i can make an up-to-date liveUSB from the laptop, then use the former to fix the system.
• Home partition
  Automatic daily incremental backup to a dedicated drive with backintime.
• Game partition
  No backup. All my games use Steam anyway, which already allows to re-download a game and its save file.

[TriMoon]

See this howto:

[HowTo] make a crash-proof backup for Manjaro

Difficulty: ★★☆☆☆ A few things you need to know about backups: One copy does not constitute a good backup! Backing up is not about the backup itself, it’s all about the easy and fast restore! Backup files should be stored on an external disk that gets connected to the system only during a backup or restore cycle so that RansomWare cannot encrypt your backup when it stumbles into your system through wine ¹ Alternatively, you can use a NAS directory that is protected by a password and that get…

[sawdoctor]

I have timeshift doing daily backups to my secondary drive (data storage only) and I have deja dup doing a weekly backup to Google drive as an added security

[merlock]

Only rsync and git.

[Mirdarthos]

I prefer rclone.

https://rclone.org/

I use it to clone my data to a free Onedrive account that I’ve got. Rclone is amazing and works very well.

[BG405]

Manual (selective) backups, admittedly not as often as I should!

I also routinely copy & save the logs of upgrades, software installation etc. from the Terminal where I can find them just in case they are needed (which does happen from time to time with things like VirtualBox).

I don’t bother backing up the system (/) partition as a chroot & fix on the (very) rare occasions it’s needed doesn’t take too long.

[carlos-reynosa]

I’ve though of using Clonzilla but haven’t used it yet:

• https://clonezilla.org/

[pito202]

I made a full backup of my two hdds, one is system other data with clonezilla to an external hdd, and i use also fsarchiver to do a backup from the live system only the system not data, and also use timeshift to do daily backups to the second drive

[Termy]

I’ve got timeshift backing up my / to my 4TB backup-drive and Back in Time backing up my /home and other stuff on some drives to the same backup-drive. Additionally i let BiT back up my personal stuff to external drives regularly and have two offsite-backups that are updated every now and again. I’m pretty confident that should be enough ^^

I’ve just reinstalled my system to use btrfs yesterday, so i’ll tweak my backup strategy accordingly once i find the time.

[DeLinuxCo]

I have found this to be the best solution, BackInTIme is severely underrated.

The off-site part I have a different solution, and this will only really work if you use both a laptop and desktop.

My Desktop is an ZP Z420, 8core/16Thread Xeon, Samsung NVME drive as the boot and 1TB SSd as Home directory. Internal 2TB HDD for backups. My Laptop is an HP Elitebook 850 G1, oldie but goodie.

I keep the Z420 and 850 home directories with Syncthing. Even if I am away from the house any file I create or delete is automatically synchronized, then the nightly backup on the Z420 backs it up to the HDD. My off-site is my laptop.

[Termy]

@DeLinuxCo

Even if I am away from the house any file I create or delete is automatically synchronized,

while this will protect you against fire or something like that, it is a bad solution regarding crypto-malware and the like For that, only a “cold storage” will help reliably

[CGA]

@carlos-reynosa

I’ve though of using Clonzilla but haven’t used it yet:

• https://clonezilla.org/

You could also try Rescuezilla wich i find infinetly easier to use. It’s also quicker and creates smaller images (only used partition space). Maybe that’s possible with Clonezilla as well but I haven’t found a way to do it.

[DeLinuxCo]

Against fire? Depends if I am home… remember, the Desktop always backs up every night, so what ever was synced will be backed up!

I know it is the accepted norm to have “off site” back up but there is something fundamentally insecure about that!

What I have been toying with is having my brother and I set up a syncthing network between both our houses, he is 30 miles away. The idea is for us both to purchase a Raspberry Pi and create each a separate account on the pi’s, then sync to each others houses, this would be our “off site” backup. I don’t trust any company with my personal data, there is absolutely no way to ensure that the data will not be compromised or mined.

I still have to research Untrusted Device Encryption for syncthing but right now it is in inception phase.

[MattG]

Déja-dup for incremental backups of my work documents. Rclone for copying some folders from my hd to Google Drive.

[dingus]

Is it true that timeshift only backs up system files and will not backup user files such as pictures, music, documents etc?

[sawdoctor]

You can set timeshift to backup your home directory if you want to, I backup mine. A lot of people prefer not to backup their home directory but backup their personal files elsewhere

[Yochanan]

@sawdoctor

You can set timeshift to backup your home directory if you want to

You can, but it’s not meant for that:

teejee2008/timeshift

[MrBo]

Ciao Carlos

Yep - I have the install CD ready… but no need to use it so far.
Anyone some experience with it?

thx
peace
B

[MrBo]

Here ist my backup procedure thjat I learned FIRST. In German:

Ein richtiges Backup macht man, indem man entweder die ganze zu klonende Partition mit Dateisystem in eine einzige Image-Datei kopiert:

dd if=/dev/sdXY of=backup.img

oder eben weniger “elementar” mit

cd ordner_fuers_backup
tar -cpf backup.tar /mnt/sys_zum_backuppen

oder

cp -a /mnt/sys_zum_backuppen/* ordner_fuers_backup/

Im ersten Fall kann man dann das alte System wieder herstellen mit

dd if=backup.img of=/dev/sdXY

dabei darf sich allerdings die Größe der Partition /dev/sdXY nicht verändert haben.

Restore a tar:

cd fodler_where_the_system_goes
tar -xpf backup.tar