How to create incremental backups using rsync on Linux - LinuxConfig.org

LinuxConfig.org Articles
#1

In previous articles, we already talked about how we can perform local and remote backups using rsync and how to setup the rsync daemon.

This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://linuxconfig.org/how-to-create-incremental-backups-using-rsync-on-linux
#2

This is such a great article. Shows the simplicity of how rsync can be used to backup. I have couple of questions.

  1. I want to run it so it backs up my complete file system starting with ‘/’ including all users and root (and maybe exclude tmp,cache,etc). What is the strategy. Should I run it as sudo? Or is there some other strategy.
  2. Will all files carry over the same perms, u,g,o, acl and timestamp?
  3. Does --delete remove the files from the older ‘snapshots’ as well? Basically I would want the deleted files kept if I go back to an older snapshot.

Thanks

#3

Hi Silocoder,

Welcome to our forums.

1.) Your backup plan depends on your needs and your plan on recovery. Let’s say the original machine gets a HDD error, and the data on the disk can not be recovered. So you take your latest backup for recovery, and… Would you like to restore the whole system, or reinstall a clean OS, and restore user data only?
I can tell you a personal example: I have a (few) postgreSQL databases, small ones, but the data is valuable. So I make regular backups, and rsync them to remote locations, because the environment itself isn’t that problematic to re-create - so my backups are small and I can restore them anywhere. So I don’t need a full backup of the entire filesystem, only this small portion. This is just one use case, it entirely depends on needs.
2.) Yes, all file permissions and timestamps are carried.
3.) If you would like to keep old “snapshots”, you can always backup to another destination - like another directory created for every backup, maybe based on time of backup.