How can Timeshift back up the running partition when other backups can't?

[EdInPa]

How can Timeshift do complete system backups when other tools can't back up a running partition with its open files? Is it because it's file by file rather than device image?

Part of the reason I'm asking is that backing up my home server using Clonezilla is enough of a pain that I don't do it very often. It's a headless Ubuntu Server machine, so I can't use Timeshift without loading all the X bloat. Timeshift with a cli interface would be nice, but the last time I looked it didn't exist. BackInTime, another rsync-based tool that does have a cli option, which I use for my user backup in Mint, warns that it may not work for full system backup running as root. I wonder if there are other rsync- or other file-based tools that are suitable for full running system backups.

(I know "just reload the operating system and go" is the answer to some server backup concerns. But I have enough extra stuff loaded on it that rebuilding it is a lot more effort and takes a good amount of time.)

[Lady Fitzgerald]

I'm curious; are you using Clonezilla to backup the server's operating system only or are you backing up the entire contents of the server with it?

[SMG]

Timeshift with a cli interface would be nice, but the last time I looked it didn't exist.

Timeshift can be run from the command line without a GUI. If you have Timeshift installed, run man timeshift to see the options.

[billyswong]

From the look of man timeshift, Timeshift seems to be capable of running in terminal? It may run okay in your headless server as long as you don't mind the extra gtk3 dependency being installed.

p.s. Checked. timeshift is the CLI command. timeshift-launcher is what provides the GUI we see in normal.

[EdInPa]

It is unfortunate that you can't install Timeshift as a cli-only, even if you can run it that way.

When I dry-run apt install timeshift, it wants to install all of this:

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  adwaita-icon-theme at-spi2-core dconf-gsettings-backend dconf-service
  gsettings-desktop-schemas gtk-update-icon-cache humanity-icon-theme
  libatk-bridge2.0-0 libatk1.0-0 libatk1.0-data libatspi2.0-0
  libcairo-gobject2 libcolord2 libdconf1 libepoxy0 libgdk-pixbuf-2.0-0
  libgdk-pixbuf2.0-bin libgdk-pixbuf2.0-common libgee-0.8-2 libgtk-3-0
  libgtk-3-bin libgtk-3-common librsvg2-2 librsvg2-common libvte-2.91-0
  libvte-2.91-common libwayland-client0 libwayland-cursor0 libwayland-egl1
  libxcomposite1 libxcursor1 libxdamage1 libxfixes3 libxi6 libxinerama1
  libxkbcommon0 libxrandr2 libxtst6 session-migration ubuntu-mono x11-common

which is way too much (for my taste) graphics library stuff for a headless server that I only ever ssh into. Most desktop users already have most or all of this, and so don't even notice these requirements. (By point of comparison, BackInTime has a base, cli-only install and a layered gui package.)

Lady Fitzgerald, most of my bulk data storage is on a nas (and is backed up from there), so backing up the operating system and backing up the server is pretty much the same thing. The "extra stuff" I was referring to are services that I have to reinstall and restore their configurations, auxiliary accounts, permissions, etc.

[spamegg]

Timeshift with a cli interface would be nice, but the last time I looked it didn't exist.

Timeshift does work on the command line:

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╰─ tldr timeshift                                                                                                   ─╯

  timeshift

  System restore utility.
  More information: https://github.com/teejee2008/timeshift.

  - List snapshots:
    sudo timeshift --list

  - Create a new snapshot (if scheduled):
    sudo timeshift --check

  - Create a new snapshot (even if not scheduled):
    sudo timeshift --create

  - Restore a snapshot (selecting which snapshot to restore interactively):
    sudo timeshift --restore

  - Restore a specific snapshot:
    sudo timeshift --restore --snapshot 'snapshot'

  - Delete a specific snapshot:
    sudo timeshift --delete --snapshot 'snapshot'

[AndyMH]

Sounds like an rsync script maybe the answer, that you will need to write yourself.

[schellasu]

How can Timeshift do complete system backups when other tools can't back up a running partition with its open files? Is it because it's file by file rather than device image?

TS is not, and never was meant, to backup complete systems!
And it does never backup a partition
I copies files that are new or changed since the last SnapShot, an makes hardlinks, for the unchanged.
And it deletes files / hardlinks for deleted files.

That's it.

[Jerboum]

This is disturbing because reading this I can doubt what I could made. I could restore a TS snapshot to an emptied partition, having only the same UUID than the one from which the snapshot was created.
Especially I am now working on it.

I add, if you find Clonzeilla is painful, perhaps it is due to its last versions, the developper broke it in my opinion, the way to chose the "image repository folder" or "partimag" is weird and some other changes I don't exactly know but that prevent to restaure some images in some conditions, action that still is possible with the old version as Clonezilla Live 1.2.12-37-i486

[EdInPa]

Using Clonezilla is only painful because I have to take the server off line for 20 minutes or so and stare at the wall while it works. For one thing, the server runs my pi-hole, so unless I change my dns provider at the router first, then my name resolution is down for the duration. It sounds stupid, but it presents enough of a barrier that I only do a backup every few months. It's not a huge risk (the server is pretty static), but more often would be better.

What was a pain was setting up a Clonezilla environment I could use on a headless system. It boots from an ISO on the hard drive with all the params to get networking running and with the ability to ssh in (by ip addr). Now that it's set up (in grub), it does what it needs to do just fine. Once it boots, I operate Clonezilla manually, saving the snapshots to my nas (by ip addr).

Perhaps I will look into automating the process so it runs unattended in the middle of the night, when I won't notice the server is down.