System backup

Tar command

There are several good ways to backup a Linux system, and I'll start with the first one I ever heard of, compression to an archive using tar command.

it's easy to make a tar file of all system and user files with something like
sudu tar {tar options} {location for tar file} {options, excludes} {dir to backup}

e.g.

sudo tar cvzpf /home/Backup_1207.tgz --same-owner --exclude=/home/Backup_1207.tgz --exclude=/home/error.log --exclude=/proc/* --exclude=/media/* --exclude=/dev/* --exclude=/mnt/* --exclude=/sys/* --exclude=/tmp/* --exclude=/var/cache/apt/archives/* --exclude=$HOME/Downloads/* /  

which I adapted from http://linuxclues.blogspot.com/2...

I added the exclude for /var/cache/apt/archives/

Also it's a good idea to exclude $HOME/.cache or clean chromium's or firefox's cache before backup (e.g with bleachbit).
You may want to make the backup on another partition too.

The 'z' option adds gzip to the command so that the tar file is compressed (tar alone just makes one file of everything).
another option is 'u' which updates the tar file, making changes, not sending everything all over again.
Adding the switch --one-file-system will exclude files from other partitions, e.g. for backup of system only:

sudo tar cvzpf /home/Backup_1207.tgz --same-owner --one-file-system --exclude=/dev/* --exclude=/mnt/* --exclude=/media/* --exclude=/proc/* --exclude=/sys/* --exclude=/tmp/* --exclude=/var/cache/apt/archives/* /  

Using scripts

1. backup system
(name it bkpsys for example)

#!/bin/bash sudo tar cvzpf /your_backup_location/Backupsys_$(date +"%y%m%d").tgz --same-owner --one-file-system --exclude=/proc/* --exclude=/media/* --exclude=/dev/* --exclude=/mnt/* --exclude=/sys/* --exclude=/tmp/* --exclude=/var/cache/apt/archives/* /  

2. backup home
(name it bkphome for example)

#!/bin/bash tar cvzpf /your_backup_location/Backuphome_$(date +"%y%m%d").tgz --same-owner --exclude=$HOME/Downloads/* $HOME  

Here's my more precise one:

#!/bin/bash tar cvzpf /media/BKP/zsysbkp/Backuphome_$(date +"%y%m%d").tgz --same-owner --exclude=$HOME/Downloads/* --exclude=$HOME/.thumbnails/* --exclude=$HOME/.local/share/Trash/* --exclude=$HOME/.local/share/marble/maps/* --exclude=$HOME/Projects/kdenlive/.backup/* --exclude=$HOME/Projects/kdenlive/proxy/* --exclude=$HOME/Projects/kdenlive/thumbs/* $HOME  

Using "$HOME" will backup the logged-in user, whereas "/home" will backup all users. Omit "sudo" here so as not to backup the root $HOME!

the resulting tar file will be time-stamped with the day's date.

set up a cron job to run them automatically.

test the tar ball integrity with:

gunzip -c B....tgz | tar t > /dev/null  

a good archive will give no errors

Update option

If you leave out the date-time parameter so that the file name is the same with each run of the script, and you add the update option 'u', then you'll be able to keep a copy of the system in a tar archive, and just keep updating it. After that you compress it and rename it with the time stamp.

tar cvupf /your_backup_location/Backupsys.tar --same-owner --one-file-system --exclude=/proc/* --exclude=/media/* --exclude=/dev/* --exclude=/mnt/* --exclude=/sys/* --exclude=/tmp/* --exclude=/var/cache/apt/archives/* / \ | gzip Backupsys_$(date +"%y%m%d").tgz  

Note that tar will append files to the archive, not replace them inline. So it's probably better to create a new archive each time.

Restoring the system from the backup tar file

sudo tar xvzf /home/Backup_1207.tgz -C /location-of-new-system  

WARNING ! this command will overwrite every file on specified target with the files from the backup tar file!


and here https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Partclone

sudo apt install partclone 

to clone a partition with compression:

sudo partclone.ext4 -c -s /dev/sdxx | gzip -c /backup-dir/image-name_$(date +"%y%m%d").pcl.gz 

to restore the image to a partition (with great care!):

zcat /backup-dir/image_....pcl.gz | sudo partclone.ext4 -r -o /dev/sdxx 

As this tool images whole partitions, without any excludes, you better tidy up the disk especially in user home.

Note: the image can only be restored to a partition equal or larger than the source partition. I tried the option -C to skip checking part space (used if we know that all the data could fit) but the result was a fail.

Clonezilla

http://clonezilla.org/

This is the GUI partclone tool. see /how-to-use-clonezilla-tutorial/

They recommend tuxboot (find the .deb here) to install the clonezilla iso to USB.

Making an image

Restore an Image

Note: restoring an image from e.g. a 20Gb hdd source onto a 50Gb target, might render the target as a 20Gb disk - gparted will be needed in that case to expand the part to fill the 50Gb.

Make a Live USB

Clonezilla can make a Live CD iso of your cloned image, see here

you need an image already

Burn the USB

try unetbootin or tuxboot with iso file

or use the zip file with a command like:

unzip image.zip -d /media/usb/ 

and make it bootable with:

cd /media/usb/utils/linux bash makeboot.sh /dev/sdxx 

RefractaSnapshot

With this script written by fsmithred, you can make a full system backup of your working box, which also becomes a Live Debian that can run or install anywhere you like. It's smooth and easy to use. Runs via CLI or by its GUI.

download refractasnapshot and refractainstaller (base deb and gui deb if needed) from http://sourceforge.net/

cd to download dir

sudo dpkg -i refracta*  

If there are unmet dependencies, sort it out with

sudo apt install -f  

for a new system I found refractasnapshot-base needed
squashfs-tools live-boot live-config live-boot-initramfs-tools live-config-sysvinit

version 9.3.3 needed the following...
libburn4 libjte1 libisofs6 libisoburn1 xorriso isolinux

refractainstaller needed
grub-pc grub-legacy

Also, you must install a newer version yad (>21.0), necessary for the snapshot installer to run properly, from here sourceforge.net/projects/yad-dialog

then cd, ./configure, make, sudo make install

or get the sid release deb binary from pkgs.org