---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 23 May 2002 11:15:19 +0200
From: Albert Brandl
dd if=/dev/sda of=/dev/sdb bs=16M You will have two problems with this: Minor: Only data lost during the last week can be restored. If you delete a file, go on holiday for two weeks and want to restore it later, there is no chance. Major: Changes in the filesystem during this "backup" will most likely ruin your copy ... !
Another problem is that this setup does not protect you against most disasters. If e.g. your computer catches fire, chances are that your second harddisk does not survive this. If someone carries your computer away, he/she won't leave the second disk so that you can restore from it. It's thus a good idea to save backups offsite. It's also crucial to have more than one backup - "Unix Backup & Recovery" (W. Curtis Preston, O'Reilly 1999) gives a very good introduction to the subject. There are several open source products for backing up stuff. If you want to use cdroms, see e.g. http://mondo.soureforge.net. We are using AMANDA for backing up to DAT and DLT tapes. AMANDA is also included in the SuSE distribution, see http://www.amanda.org for an introduction (I've found the FAQ-o-matic quite helpful for configuring my system). Best regards, Albert