On Thursday, 9 August 2018 09:18:43 BST Bill Kenworthy wrote: > On 08/08/18 11:43, Dale wrote: > > Howdy, > > > > Long story short that leads up to my questions, I paid off some debt. > > Hi Dale, > > what you are talking about is not a real backup but a single copy of > your data that may or may not be complete (the delete option you > mention) at a single point in time - not quite as useful as a proper > versioned backup. Whatever your choice, also look at the restore > procedure - very important.
Well, a static mirror is a full backup at that point in time. If the backed up data changes little over time, it is a valid backup, which can prove its worth if/when the original drive dies, or files are deleted accidentally on the original. On the points Dale raised: The --delete option will remove from the destination any files which no longer exist on the source. So if you delete photo-1 on the source and then run rsync, photo-1 *will* be deleted from the full back up, to mirror what is currently available on the source directory. Here is where incremental/differential backup strategies can be of use, in case some time in the relatively near future you change your mind and wish you never had deleted that old photo-1. The same may apply to user config files, if you stop using an application, manually clean/delete its config files from your home and rsync --delete thereafter. If in the near future you review your position and decide you wanted that application after all and the 2 weeks you had spent configuring it would be of use again, with the --delete option your config files will be gone from the backup. So, use --delete judiciously. rsync can on its own provide you with incremental and differential backups, using hard links to the full backup directory, so as to avoid duplication and minimise storage space usage. This means that incremental backups take only a fraction of the space and additional disks or enclosures may be redundant. Take a look at the --backup, --backup-dir, and --link-dest, options. As others have posted there are a number of applications which use rsync as a back end and have scripted with config files its options. There's also quite a number of bash scripts on the interwebs offering a starting point if you prefer to hack your own. With regards to heat and humidity I suggest you take a look at the manufacturer's specifications, both for the enclosure and for the drives. Invariably environmental thresholds are printed on labels on the devices themselves, or you could google using the part numbers off them. HTH. -- Regards, Mick
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