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linux:backup_and_restore [2012/03/19 14:17]
Joel Dare
linux:backup_and_restore [2020/06/01 22:53] (current)
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 +====== Backup and Restore a Linux System ======
  
 +**//I have NOT gotten this to actually work.  These are instructions I've pulled from various resources. ​ I imagine they can be made to work, but I haven'​t figured it out yet.//**
 +
 +I was trying all sorts of backup options on my system recently. ​ I wanted to backup my entire system and restore it in a virtual machine. ​ I looked at Ghost 4 Linux, Clonezilla, and others. ​ For some reason, none of that stuff was working for me.  Finally, I came across a [[http://​ubuntuforums.org/​showthread.php?​t=35087|thread]] that mentioned how to backup by simply tarring everything.
 +
 +Here's the backup command.
 +
 +  tar cvpzf backup.tgz --exclude=/​proc --exclude=/​lost+found --exclude=/​backup.tgz --exclude=/​mnt --exclude=/​sys --exclude=/​media --exclude=/​backup /
 +  ​
 +There is also some mention from other users that you should exclude /dev and /sys.  The original poster, however, mentions that there are problems with excluding those and including them doesn'​t seem to hurt.
 +
 +Once you have your backup, here's how to restore it. //Be careful, this overwrites all files on your hard drive with those in the backup.//
 +
 +  tar xvpfz backup.tgz -C /
 +  ​
 +If you are restoring onto a different system or onto a virtual machine then Grub may have exploded. ​ I found the [[https://​help.ubuntu.com/​community/​Boot-Repair#​Getting_Boot-Repair|Boot-Repair documentation]] helpful to restore my system from that state.
 +
 +====== Other Thoughts ======
 +
 +I probably should have excluded grub or some part of grub in order to prevent messing it up.  My case was unique, however, because I was restoring to a different machine (a VM in my case).
 +
 +I also excluded ///home// because I back it up separately.
 +
 +One observation I made is that the gziped file was slightly larger than my hard drive. I actually expected it to be slightly smaller, since it's compressed. ​ That was because I created the gzip file on a drive mounted in /media and I did not exclude /media when I did my backup. ​ I've added that exclusion to the backup process now.  Make sure you exclude the file or directory that you backup to.
 +
 +You can also exclude the '​z'​ option and change the filename from '​.tgz'​ to '​.tar'​ to skip using gzip on the backup. ​ Sometimes disk space is cheap. ​ I tried it both ways and it actually seemed faster when I used gzip; probably because disk speed was my bottle neck.  At first I thought this might help me, but it didn'​t.
 +
 +There is also a great [[https://​help.ubuntu.com/​community/​BackupYourSystem/​TAR|Ubuntu article]] about various ways to do the backup. ​ Doing it across a network was particularly useful in my situation.
 +
 +Here's the final command that I ran to create the backup. ​ Your command will vary from this and it's here only as a reference.
 +
 +  sudo tar -cvpzf /​media/​FreeAgent\ Kay/​backup.tgz --one-file-system --exclude=/​proc --exclude=/​lost+found --exclude=/​sys --exclude=/​backup --exclude=/​home / > ~/​backup.log &
 +  ​
 +====== Using rsync Instead ======
 +
 +Instead of using tar and gzip you could copy all the files to a destination. ​ This will leave them 
 +
 +  sudo rsync -azv --progress --exclude=/​proc --exclude=/​lost+found --exclude=/​sys --exclude=/​backup --exclude=/​dev --exclude=/​export --exclude=/​media --exclude=/​mnt --exclude=/​tmp / /​media/​FreeAgent\ Kay/​Backup/​macubuntu/​
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