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[OCLUG-Tech] Back-up strategy for home linux systems

Hello All,

My current back-up process is as follows:

- Via a weekly cron job, a hand written back-up script runs.

- The script uses rsync to copy all changes to an exact copy of the current system (ignoring some directories).

I have to have another drive setup as a primary partition with the bootable flag set and to make sure the back-up works, I've got to disconnect the working drive and plug in the back-up drive and boot off it.

I've used this process for a while now and it works fairly well. However, I'd like to look at something using image files/snapshots.

I think someone a while back discussed rsync-snapshot so I'm going to look it up but I thought I would ask what people use for back-ups.

Ideally I'd like something that offers the following:

- schedules back-ups (otherwise I'll forget) while the system is running normally - each back-up creates an exact copy of the drive as a mountable image file - a configurable number of back-ups are kept and then the oldest is overwritten
- command line interface (the servers I run don't have X)
- a recovery live CD for disaster recovery where an image can be restored to a new drive and then that new drive can be booted.

Is there a tool out there offering these features that someone on the list has used (restored with). I'll start poking around but I thought I would get someone's personal recommendation before I start trying things.

Thanks in advance,

Dennis