Recommended total system backup solution

11.10 backup deja-dup

Solution 1

I hope you have lots of free space, and that free space is highly available. In a Debian system, you really only need to back up what's in /home and perhaps /etc. Then you can get a list of all packages installed like so:

dpkg --get-selections > installed-software

and to restore:

dpkg --set-selections < installed-software && dselect

Deja-dup, or just using duplicity directly should suit your needs and save you a ton of space compared to saving binary copies of your HD. It'll be faster too.

6/19/2013 I've written detailed instructions on how to automate duplicity (crontab) and use passphrase protected gpg encryption.

Solution 2

I have just restored a system, myself. I am a newbie to Ubuntu, but I have learned a lot and I am a fan of multi-partitions.

Backing up /etc; well I don't know, but having a record of 'fstab' is essential and during the re-installation, remembering to only format the / partition is also important. As a result of having a mount point at /home/my-namefor my data partition, the most important thing that I discovered as a direct result of the re-install, was the need to immediately revert fstab. This required a reboot following the system installation, (just like "Windows"),as I was unable to invoke gedit from the command line straight away.

The benefit is avoiding the need to restore to /home/my-name. It is enough of a chore having to re-install all the previously installed programs.

To be doubly safe a monthly clone of the entire hard drive is good. 'dd' leaves you hanging in space without a clue as to what is going on. 'DDRESCUE' keeps you informed. I shall take a look at 'Clonezilla'. Backups with deja dup however, seem to restore data just fine.

Solution 3

Professionally, we use Clonezilla to do full disk and partition clones. It can image the disk to an external USB, SFTP, or NFS shares. It compresses the image and in some cases is able to do partition resizing based upon disk size.

http://clonezilla.org/

Solution 4

you need remastersys, it backs up everything, all installed apps, the whole lot. back in time or deja dup are good, but to get YOUR system back the way you had it, remastersys is great for backing up your system

get it here http://www.geekconnection.org/remastersys/

be sure to read the guides and you cant go wrong

Solution 5

Are you looking for a Disk/partition cloning software like Norton Ghost with a nice GUI? Use Redo!

Is open, very easy, partitioning and other tools included and you can surf the web while you clone, back up or restore your disk/partition

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Hence

Updated on September 18, 2022

Comments

Hence over 1 year
When people visit my main page, index.php, I want them to be redirected to index.php?page_id=2

To do this, I added a simple html code in the head:
```
<meta HTTP-EQUIV="REFRESH" content="0; url=http://www.domain.com/index.php?page_id=2">
```
The problem is that the destination and all other pages of my site runs that code it goes on a loop. I am using Wordpress. Is there any solution to direct them to index.php?page_id=2 upon visiting index.php without it going on a loop?

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.
- Leo over 10 years
  
  I just found out on the develpper's website that he is shutting down remastersys See geekconnection.org/remastersys
Hence over 12 years

Excellent reply David. Could you kindly provide me with the IF php code to make the redirect? I have no experience in PHP, only html I'm afraid.
Hence over 12 years

I just tried this, did not work. Are you certain that you wrote it correctly? I added it at the top of the script...
Hence over 12 years

I received a "Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by" error...
Quetzy Garcia over 12 years

This should be the first thing after the PHP opening <?php I didn't test it with Wordpress, just using an ordinary PHP file. If you are including other files before, that might be the reason for the "headers already sent" error.
Hence over 12 years

It worked now, I had to add the code somewhere else as the structure of the wordpress editor resembles the Star Trek tricorder. Nonetheless, thank you very much for the assistance.
bioShark over 12 years

On my disk I have multiple partitions. sdb4 is my linux and sdb5 my swap. Can Clonezilla clone only those partitions form the disk?
bioShark over 12 years

What about using Deja Dup to back up / and then after a fresh install of ubuntu, make a restore?
bioShark over 12 years

I have made a / back-up in Deja Dup, home it helps. Thanks for the clonezilla tip though
bioShark over 12 years

So you are saying that it's enough to set Deja-Dup back-up /home and /etc ?
ppetraki over 12 years

Correct, because /etc doesn't have a list of every package you've installed. Pretty sure that information lives in /var. You'll need /etc to restore any PPAs you've applied but you still need a record of what you installed from there. Best thing would be to create an additional cron job that runs the aforementioned command and deposits it in your $HOME, that way dejadup has you covered.
bioShark over 12 years

Great. I'll create then a cron job with "dpkg --get-selections > installed-software" to get the list of installed software, and set up deja-dup with /home + /etc.
James over 11 years

Also see askubuntu.com/questions/78076/… for Question/Answers here on AskUbuntu of how to clone your drive with dd (and other programs)
kanu about 10 years

The development of remastersys has been discontinued.