[vox-tech] simple backup and restore

[Tim Riley]

Jay Strauss wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I just want to do a simple backup, write the backup file to the system
> disk or an NFS mount.  Then restore from that file.
>
> I'm not sure what I should backup.  I figure I can exclude: /tmp /dev
> /mnt /proc
>
> If I do:
>
> cd /
> tar zcvf backup.tar.gz bin boot etc home initrd initrd.img lib media opt
> root sbin  srv  sys  usr  var  vmlinuz
>
> How would I restore, such that I get the previous image, and not a
> combination of the restored files and the new files?

Instead of backing up individual system files and directories, consider
making an image backup of the entire filesystem:
# dd if=/dev/hda1 bs=10k | gzip > backup.dd.gz

Then upon restore, you're guaranteed to get the previous image.

>
>
> What I want to do is install some software, do a backup, try installing
> some other software, restore to the old backup, try installing again...
>
> Thanks
> Jay
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