Server Backup Strategies Imaging & tarballs

[joximu]

There are a lot of possibilities - the right solution tightly depends on your possibilities + knowhow.

dd -> to make a 1:1 copy of a disk or partition
tar -> originally for tape archive but also good to make backups
rsync -> the power tool for making backups and archives (eg. rsnapshot)

but for rsync (and tar) you need to be sure which folders you need to safe/sync.
E.g. normally /usr is not needed to be backupped. /var/log depends on you...
etc etc... you have to decide.

A not bad start may be /etc, /var and maybe /root - if you also have a list of installed packages, then with theese infos it's not to difficult to setup a new machine with the same config+data.

But /var/lib/mysql: you better make db dumps, otherwise you would need to stop the DB while syncing or saving theese files....

/J