Backup your Linux machine the smart way
Intelligent backup of your Linux machine’s valuable data doesn’t have to be complicated. Linux User & Developer’s Sukrit Dhandhania shows you quite how easy and effective rsync tool-based luckyBackup can make the process…
This article originally appeared in issue 90 of Linux User & Developer magazine.
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luckyBackup is a backup application for UNIX-based platforms such as Linux and Mac OS X. It is based on the very powerful and versatile rsync tool. It is simple to use, efficient by design, and comes with advanced data verification features. It’s also reliable and quite customisable. If you have used rsync in the past, you probably know just how well it blends flexibility with powerful features. For users who are familiar with Time Machine, the backup tool built into Apple’s Mac OS X, luckyBackup brings some similar features to the Linux platform.
Let’s look at how to get luckyBackup installed on your Linux computer and then we’ll examine how to set it up and get it going. After that we’ll look at some advanced tweaks that will take your backup process to a whole new level…
01 Get luckyBackup
The first step you need to perform before you can get your hands dirty with luckyBackup is to install it. You can use your Linux distribution’s package manager or installer to install it. If you are using Ubuntu Linux, you should be able to get it by executing the command ‘# sudo apt-get install luckybackup’. If apt-get does not find luckyBackup in its repositories, please look at step 2 for instructions. If the installation went through okay, skip steps 2 and 3 and go straight to step 4.
02 Alternative installation method
In case apt-get is unable to find luckyBackup in its sources, we will need to add a new source for it. Launch a terminal window and open the file ‘/etc/apt/sources.list’ using a text editor with administrative privileges. Execute the command ‘#gksudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list’. If you are using Jaunty Jackalope, add the following lines to the file:
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/luckybackup-maintainers/ppa/ubuntu jaunty main deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/luckybackup-maintainers/ppa/ubuntu jaunty main
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Why not just do this?
rsync -ave ssh /path/to/source destination.server:/destination/dir
@Tony:
Is your syntax correct?
From “man rsync”:
If you need to specify a different remote-shell user, keep in mind that the user@ prefix in front of the host is specifying the rsync-
user value (for a module that requires user-based authentication). This means that you must give the ’-l user’ option to ssh when speci‐
fying the remote-shell, as in this example that uses the short version of the –rsh option:
rsync -av -e “ssh -l ssh-user” rsync-user@host::module /dest
Rsync does look good, but when you get to 70 yrs old (even after 40 yrs of programming) it becomes more difficult to remember the various command syntax and parameters of the CLI. I’ve even lucky to remember the names of commands I most commonly use! :-) For old, retired programmers and fresh newbies GUI interfaces (and their helps) are one way to keep trucking as ones gray cells slowly die off. :-(
I wonder if it is possible to do the following: In my HD I have three partitions, one with Windows 7, another with Ubuntu and one for data. Would like to copy the Ubuntu partition, save on CD, to restore it in case of failure in the future. Is it possible?