ZFS is easy and awesome but VERY resource-heavy. You want 1GB of RAM for each TB in your array, and you want that to be ECC RAM! Which means a motherboard/CPU that supports that. I'm running without ECC RAM. No real issues, really, but my system is INSANELY slow when doing scrubs/repairs (and yes, I fixed those parameters). On Fri, 4 Sep 2015, Mike Miller wrote: > I have the impression that zfs is a safer and more reliable system than ext4, > so maybe I should want zfs, but is it working on Linux? Is it hard to get it > installed for use with an external drive? > > I guess $0.06/GB-month is a good deal if you have a small amount of data to > backup. > > Mike > > > On Fri, 4 Sep 2015, Linda Kateley wrote: > >> So.. I have to weigh in here.. I don't know if people know i do the classes >> for freenas, but you can use it as a gui for both formatting drives and >> replication.. and it's free. and it has time machine.. >> >> In my environment I just has a small nas box that i backup to all of my >> systems including my macs. >> >> I just saw rsync.net will take zfs receives and charge .06 per GB per month >> for zfs. >> >> linda >> >> On 9/4/15 2:28 PM, Jeff Chapin wrote: >>> The script would take a little tweaking, but it could work. >>> >>> I, personally, know that I would get lazy at some point and fail to swap >>> the drives for months on end. I would consider taking one of the drives to >>> both locations, and getting an initial backup of each location, and then >>> mirroring that to the other drive -- and then have both locations back up >>> to both drives. Alternatively, you could backup both drives to the local >>> drive, and then mirror the two drives(you could do hourly local backups, >>> and nightly remote copies). Since rsync only transfers the differences, >>> once you have the initial backup, it's likely that each day's change is >>> fairly small. If you use the flag to make rsync aware of the hardlinks, >>> you could presumably replicate a full copy of the day's hourly backups >>> fairly quickly. >>> >>> >>> On Fri, Sep 4, 2015 at 2:17 PM, Mike Miller <mbmiller+l at gmail.com >>> <mailto:mbmiller+l at gmail.com>> wrote: >>> >>> That is really cool! I'll have to try something like that. I'm >>> thinking a good strategy is to have two drives, both with all the >>> same stuff on them, and I'll use them both to backup all my Linux >>> boxes (home, office, laptops). I'll just switch between home and >>> office every week or so. That way if my house burns down or my >>> office is burglarized, I still have a copy of everything from last >>> week at the other location. >>> >>> Does that seem reasonable? The thing I'm not sure of is how that >>> strategy would work with the "time machine" concept -- I'd be >>> using two drives and swapping them weekly. >>> >>> Mike >>> >>> >>> >>> On Fri, 4 Sep 2015, Jeff Chapin wrote: >>> >>> Looking at the rsync command you gave, it looks correct -- but >>> rsync can do >>> so much more when backing up! >>> >>> Using the magic of rsync, and the magic of hardlinks, you can >>> make a full >>> backup, in incremental time and space. Rsync has, built into >>> it, the >>> ability to compare your most recent backup files with existing >>> backup >>> files, and if they are they same, use a hard link, and copy >>> them over if >>> they differ. This allows you to store just the files that >>> change -- but it >>> looks like a full backup every time it runs. This way, you can >>> keep, say, >>> hourly backups for the last week -- and recover an >>> accidentally deleted or >>> altered file, even after the latest backup has run. >>> >>> For more details: >>> https://blog.interlinked.org/tutorials/rsync_time_machine.html >>> >>> >>> >>> On Fri, Sep 4, 2015 at 8:21 AM, T L <tlunde at gmail.com >>> <mailto:tlunde at gmail.com>> wrote: >>> >>> Assuming that you have NOTHING on the drive that you care >>> about, I would >>> remove the factory partitioning and create a new GPT table >>> with parted. >>> >>> Then, format that as ext4. >>> On Sep 3, 2015 3:17 PM, "Mike Miller" >>> <mbmiller+l at gmail.com <mailto:mbmiller%2Bl at gmail.com>> wrote: >>> >>> How to format? >>> >>> I have a couple of Linux boxes that I would like to >>> regularly backup to a >>> 5 TB external drive. It seems like it would be a good >>> idea to format that >>> drive with ext4. Can I just do that with gparted? The >>> drive comes with >>> NTFS format. Are there any issues I should know about? >>> >>> >>> Which directories to back up? >>> >>> What really needs to be backed up? I guess if the >>> system totally failed >>> I'd install Linux (Ubuntu) again. Of course /home is >>> needed, but >>> /usr/local and /opt often have programs I've installed >>> and /etc will have a >>> bunch of settings. I guess /var can have some >>> important stuff. Are >>> crontabs stored in /var? >>> >>> >>> Which software to use for backup? >>> >>> I guess I want only to have in backup what is on the >>> originating drive. >>> So if I have deleted a file, I want it to be deleted >>> on the backup drive, >>> too. I assume rsync can do this. Would this be correct?: >>> >>> rsync -av --update --delete /home /usr/local /etc /var >>> /opt /media/me/back >>> >>> >>> TIA! >>> >>> Mike >>> _______________________________________________ >>> TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota >>> tclug-list at mn-linux.org <mailto:tclug-list at mn-linux.org> >>> http://mailman.mn-linux.org/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list >>> >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota >>> tclug-list at mn-linux.org <mailto:tclug-list at mn-linux.org> >>> http://mailman.mn-linux.org/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> -- Jeff Chapin >>> President, CedarLug, retired >>> President, UNIPC, "I'll get around to it" >>> President, UNI Scuba Club >>> Senator, NISG, retired >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota >>> tclug-list at mn-linux.org <mailto:tclug-list at mn-linux.org> >>> http://mailman.mn-linux.org/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> -- >>> Jeff Chapin >>> President, CedarLug, retired >>> President, UNIPC, "I'll get around to it" >>> President, UNI Scuba Club >>> Senator, NISG, retired >>> >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota >>> tclug-list at mn-linux.org >>> http://mailman.mn-linux.org/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list >> >> -- >> Linda Kateley >> Kateley Company >> Skype ID-kateleyco >> http://kateleyco.com >> >> > _______________________________________________ > TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota > tclug-list at mn-linux.org > http://mailman.mn-linux.org/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list >