Do you backup your Ubuntu install?

[JF382]

Do you backup your Ubuntu install? If so, how often, and what program do you use? I am looking to backup all the software, documents, themes/icons, etc so that if I ever need to re-install Ubuntu I can just get them all back very easily. Is this possible? Thanks.

[vexorian]

Yes, it is possible. Ubuntu comes with a backup app by default. It is called "deja" something, so just type "deja" in some app finder and it should find it.

You can also use more advanced tools. But since you just want to backup files and themes, I think this app is good enough.

It already backs up your home which includes your settings and documents. To backup your themes you would have to include the /usr/share/themes and /user/share/icons folders.

[linktopower]

I use APTonCD (For making a backup all the program packages I've gotten) You can find it in the Ubuntu software center, And for documents and stuff I just copy them to a flash card.

[phrak]

rsync hourly backups to an off site (located at a friends house) backup. I host a server for him to do the same.

[oldfred]

Some like image backups, some like to backup their own data. It also depends on data value. A business has a lot of valuable data and must be backed up more often. I am a home user but some data like photos & some documents are more valuable. Those I can regenerate fairly easily in the short term, so I only copy those to a DVD every quarter or less. I run rsync for that data plus some other data to another drive more frequently.

discussion of alternatives/strategy backups
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BackupYourSystem

http://www.rsnapshot.org/
http://backintime.le-web.org/
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/TimeVault
http://flyback-project.org/

Full image backups
http://clonezilla.org/
Free Imaging software - CloneZilla & PartImage - Tutorial
http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/f..._software.html

If you don't mind the command line, you can use duplicity.
If you DO mind the command line, there is a front end for duplicity; deja-dup.

Tar backup script:
https://help.ubuntu.com/11.04/server...llscripts.html

I posted what I back up with rsync, so I can easily reinstall.
Oldfred's list of stuff to backup May 2011:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1748541

[jonnyboysmithy]

I usually backup about once or twice a month..
I just use luckybackup (front end for rsync) to copy my homefolder, but before that I get it to execute this script:

dd if=/dev/zero of=/tmp/disk_zero_fill.tmp bs=8M; rm -f /tmp/disk_zero_fill.tmp

# set date variable
tdy=`date +%d-%m-%Y`

gksudo dd bs=15M if=/dev/sda5 conv=sync,noerror | gzip -9 > /home/username/.System-Root-Partition-Image$tdy.img.gz

Works sweet as.

[Primefalcon]

just my home via tar and gzip

[standingwave]

Do you backup your Ubuntu install? If so, how often, and what program do you use? I am looking to backup all the software, documents, themes/icons, etc so that if I ever need to re-install Ubuntu I can just get them all back very easily. Is this possible? Thanks.

No, just my home folder via rsync. My philosophy is that up-time isn't that much of a concern to me and if things got completely FUBARed I would just take the time (opportunity?) to perform a clean install. The important thing is that my data is safe.

[jonnyboysmithy]

For me its important to have both my homefolder and my system partition backed up. I have dual graphics on this system thats a pain to set up, cheers ATI you make awesome drivers .
I hear the newer drivers are better, but I think I'll leave it as is I don't wanna fix it till its broke.

[Paqman]

No, just my home folder via rsync. My philosophy is that up-time isn't that much of a concern to me and if things got completely FUBARed I would just take the time (opportunity?) to perform a clean install. The important thing is that my data is safe.

100%. Don't see any point backing up anything outside /home. I just dropped a little wee script into /etc/cron.daily that rsyncs /home to my NAS, then I'm covered by the NAS's backup routine. Job done.