automatic backup software

[jdave]

Hopefully this is the right board for this. I've used Macrium Reflect in Windows for years and I'm looking for something similarly easy to use and solid for Linux. I want "set it and forget it" reliability, a full disk image backup, backup file compression, and the ability to restore from a boot disk if the system won't boot. I'll be backing up to a folder on a usb drive that is formatted in ext4. The ability to do incremental backups would be nice, as would only backing up used space, but the key feature is reliability. I have used a five year old boot disc to restore with Macrium even though the system and software on the machine had been updated many times. I've looked at a lot of options online but I'd rather not experiment installing and uninstalling to find something I'm happy with. That's what knowledgeable opinions are for. Thanks.

Thanks for all the responses, I'm sorting through my options.

[Pierre]

you can still continue with using that old version Macrium Reflect Boot Disk,
& most probably forever, as well. it works well - so why change it ?.

on the later versions of LinuxMint - there is an option to use TimeShift,,
& which is similar to the Windows based System Restore program.

some folks, will use Grsync is a rsync gui, a graphical user interface for the rsync file synchronization
and backup tool. It works on linux, solaris, windows, mac os x ..

yet others are using DataDump < DD > as an Terminal method of backing up, their system.

[Daddylongleg]

Hi jdave,
perhaps my earlier posting may help you. Had the same question and found a simple solution in using timeshift. To restore an image just start a Live-DVD and with timeshift you can access the stored image which should of course be on a separate device. Please see attached picture for reference. Sorry, I do not know to enclose a link to my posting. Regards, Daddylongleg

[pbear]

Here's a link: Mint19 - system backup & restore: a simple solution.

As for how to do links, Daddylongleg, there are two methods. The quick and dirty way is simply to copy the URL into your post. The system will convert it to a hyperlink, albeit kinda clunky looking and prone to muck up line breaks and text flow. The fancy way is to use URL tags. It's the tenth button from the left on the text entry box; the icon is supposed to look like chain links. Put the clear text for the link between the tags. Arrow over into the left tag, insert an = sign and copy in the URL. Easier to understand if you look at one. Hit quote on this post and you'll see how I coded it.

If the question is how to find the URL of your prior post, I found it by doing a forum search under your user name. I also could have used the thread title. Once brought up, there are several links one can use. When linking to a thread, I prefer the simplest one, which will be found by hovering your mouse over the title at the very top, above the Post Reply button. Right click and copy, then paste into your current post.

By the way, Timeshift is a useful app (included in all versions of Mint since 18.3 and available in repo for installation to earlier versions), but it only restores system files. The OP is looking for something broader.

[AndyMH]

I use timeshift (for root) and backintime (for home), both are set to backup automatically daily. Both use rsync as a back end, so first time takes a while, thereafter they only copy what has changed. Both are file level backups, i.e you can restore individual files.

Infrequently (and manually) I use redo (booting from a USB stick) to take partition images. Another linux alternative, used by many, is clonezilla. For a restore you have to restore the entire partition, i.e. not individual files.

I have used all of them in anger having borked my system at various times, none of them have let me down.

[redlined]

I use Timeshift for root and Aptik for all else. Aptik can be installed by adding PPA for it (normally very discouraged around these parts, however the good fella, TonyGeorge that made Timeshift which is now included/forced(strongly recommended;) as backups default on LM19 and T.G. aka "TeeJee"is the same trustworthy fella for Aptik, so I trust:)

More about aptik:
https://github.com/teejee2008/aptik
https://github.com/teejee2008/aptik/blo ... /MANUAL.md

how to install:
https://github.com/teejee2008/aptik/wiki/Installation

Code: Select all

sudo apt-add-repository -y ppa:teejee2008/ppa
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install aptik aptik-gtk

edit to add, pretty good readme for Timeshift too:
https://github.com/teejee2008/timeshift#timeshift

[Kendoori]

If I want to create an Aptik cron job that backups to the "basic" defaults I have set up in GUI (e.g. /home/kenny/Documents/Backups), what should I invoke?

[redlined]

If I want to create an Aptik cron job that backups to the "basic" defaults I have set up in GUI (e.g. /home/kenny/Documents/Backups), what should I invoke?

hi Kendoori!

First consider where you store your backups, although aptik is good about not backing up it's backups it is still advisable to store your backups on separate partition or even better separate drive than the OS is using. A symlink to backups directory from separate harddrive can easily be set to mount a backups folder in your ~/Documents directory which will appear as a folder under /home but in fact may be anywhere.

Next you'll want to sort the commands for aptik in terminal to determine command for cron job. For "basic" defaults, which I take to mean everything selectable in expert GUI mode is what you want (the --backup-all flag). Using your backups directory mentioned above the command would look like:
sudo aptik --backup-all --dry-run --basepath /home/kenny/Documents/Backups run that then check terminal results to see if everything looks in order, if so, rerun the command removing the --dry-run flag:
sudo aptik --backup-all --basepath /home/kenny/Documents/Backups

and since you need elevated privilege to run the backup you'll want to use root crontab for scheduling which can be edited using command sudo crontab -e
more info on that can be found here:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/CronHowto

this will also be very helpful in getting the right command sorted (based on your desire for how often)
http://www.openjs.com/scripts/jslibrary ... rontab.php

just copy that run command above (or whatever you sort it to be based on preferences) and paste it into the command box on openjs demo page, then select time, etc and click generate.

For example, I want to run aptik full backups every Sunday at 0205 am, the command for root crontab entry will look like:
5 2 * * 0 aptik --backup-all --basepath /home/kenny/Documents/Backups
so I would copy that command and edit root crontab by:
sudo crontab -e
then Ctrl+Shift+V to paste command at first empty line shown
then hit Ctrl+O and hit Enter to write the file to disk
Ctrl+X to close nano editor

That should get you going, hope this helps!

[Kendoori]

Gotta love the attention. Thanks for the specifics!!

Actually, even though I was syncing that folder to the cloud, I was running out of space in /home, so I just changed it to the permanently mounted MicroSD card that I'm also using for TimeShift data.

Will do on the cron-tab stuff... I know how to run with it. Thanks for the details on dry-run etc...

[redlined]

Actually, even though I was syncing that folder to the cloud, I was running out of space in /home, so I just changed it to the permanently mounted MicroSD card that I'm also using for TimeShift data.

Will do on the cron-tab stuff... I know how to run with it. Thanks for the details on dry-run etc...

very good, in terminal aptik --help has all the details for flags to use if "everything" is not desired and those would take the place --backup-all.
If you run your desired backup set using aptik-gtk (GUI) then take a look at the terminal tab (in the GUI), it will show all the flags to help you sort the full command line to enter for your cron job. I see now your last response wasn't necessarily asking for how to set cron job my apologies. but that terminal tab in the GUI really helped me setup some smaller jobs going elsewhere and only run a full backup-all once a month.