[arch-general] Full system backup with rsync

Tue Oct 18 11:52:08 UTC 2016

> Today's Topics:
>    1. Full system backup with rsync (niya levi)
>    2. Re: Full system backup with rsync (Ralf Mardorf)
>    3. Re: Full system backup with rsync (Ralf Mardorf)
>    4. Re: Full system backup with rsync (Ralf Mardorf)
>    5. Re: Full system backup with rsync (Ralf Mardorf)
>    6. Re: Full system backup with rsync (Merlin B?ge)
>    7. Re: Full system backup with rsync (Merlin B?ge)
>    8. Re: Full system backup with rsync (Merlin B?ge)
>    9. Re: Full system backup with rsync (Ralf Mardorf)
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 2
> Date: Mon, 17 Oct 2016 21:11:23 +0200
> From: Ralf Mardorf <silver.bullet at zoho.com>
> To: arch-general at archlinux.org
> Subject: Re: [arch-general] Full system backup with rsync
> Message-ID: <20161017211123.2ead397e at utnubu>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
>
>
> # grub-install --target=i386-pc /dev/sdx
> # grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
> you could simply
>
> sudo systemd-nspawn -bqD /mnt/
>
> from the existing install and run the commands required for your
> bootloader of choice, assuming this grub auto thingy does generate UUID
> based entries and your fstab (if you still should use fstab at all) does
> contain those, too, since sdx would change from x=b to x=a, if you
> remove the old drive.
>
> Regards,
> Ralf
>
>
>
> -- Death of ROXTerm
> https://sourceforge.net/p/roxterm/discussion/422638/thread/60da6975/
> ------------------------------ Message: 3 Date: Mon, 17 Oct 2016
> 21:18:37 +0200 From: Ralf Mardorf <silver.bullet at zoho.com> To:
> arch-general at archlinux.org Subject: Re: [arch-general] Full system
> backup with rsync Message-ID: <20161017211837.565c38ca at utnubu>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII On Mon, 17 Oct 2016
> 21:11:23 +0200, Ralf Mardorf wrote:
>> you could simply
>>
>> sudo systemd-nspawn -bqD /mnt/
>>
> >from the existing install and run the commands required for your
>> bootloader of choice, assuming this grub auto thingy does generate UUID
>> based entries and your fstab (if you still should use fstab at all)
>> does contain those, too, since sdx would change from x=b to x=a, if you
>> remove the old drive.
> PPS:
>
> Oops again,
>
> this would add entries for the new and old drive's , so after
> removing the old drive, you need to run the grub auto-thingy again, to
> get rid of the entries related to the old drive.
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 5
> Date: Mon, 17 Oct 2016 21:28:17 +0200
> From: Ralf Mardorf <silver.bullet at zoho.com>
> To: Arch general <arch-general at archlinux.org>
> Subject: Re: [arch-general] Full system backup with rsync
> Message-ID: <20161017212817.2e3f0db9 at utnubu>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
>
> On Mon, 17 Oct 2016 21:11:23 +0200, Ralf Mardorf wrote:
>> you could simply
>>
>> sudo systemd-nspawn -bqD /mnt/
>>
> >from the existing install and run the commands required for your
>> bootloader of choice, assuming this grub auto thingy does generate UUID
>> based entries and your fstab (if you still should use fstab at all)
>> does contain those, too, since sdx would change from x=b to x=a, if you
>> remove the old drive.
> Did I misunderstand something?
>
> Sure, if not both drives should be connected, you need a live media to
> install grub.
>
> My apologies.
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 6
> Date: Mon, 17 Oct 2016 21:42:03 +0200
> From: Merlin B?ge <toni at bluenox07.de>
> To: General Discussion about Arch Linux <arch-general at archlinux.org>
> Subject: Re: [arch-general] Full system backup with rsync
> Message-ID: <20161017214203.d327b9224e06fa29ea6d1276 at bluenox07.de>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
>
> On Mon, 17 Oct 2016 21:20:53 +0200
> Ralf Mardorf <silver.bullet at zoho.com> wrote:
>
>> Begin forwarded message:
>>
>> Date: Mon, 17 Oct 2016 21:12:51 +0200
>> From: Ralf Mardorf <ralf.mardorf at rocketmail.com>
>> To: Arch general <arch-general at archlinux.org>
>> Subject: Re: [arch-general] Full system backup with rsync
>>
>>
>> On Mon, 17 Oct 2016 21:11:23 +0200, Ralf Mardorf wrote:
>>> I would simply sudo cp -r everything.  
>> Oops,           sudo cp -pr
> I would definitely go for rsync, because it's easier to resume if the process
> gets interrupted, for whatever reason.
>
> Also cp -pr does not preserve links or xattrs for example. Maybe cp -ar would
> be more appropriate.
>
> rsync -a is a good start, you might also want to check if you need
> -xattrs
> -hard-links
> -acls
> --numeric-ids (if doing edits from a live system)
> --sparse
> --relative
>
> And yes, you sould review your fstab. If you use UUIDs in it, then they have
> to be adapted of course.
>
> If you are willing to spend some time reading, here is a good article which
> mentions some pitfalls regarding backups.
>
> Regarding the bootloader: Yes, you would have to install it on the new drive
> ofc. Your commands seem okay to me, not sure if you need something more.
>
> If you have a swap file, create it first, so that it gets not scattered on the
> new drive.
>
> Regards,
>
> mearon
>
>
> -- Merlin B?ge <toni at bluenox07.de> ------------------------------
> Message: 7 Date: Mon, 17 Oct 2016 21:44:40 +0200 From: Merlin B?ge
> <toni at bluenox07.de> To: General Discussion about Arch Linux
> <arch-general at archlinux.org> Subject: Re: [arch-general] Full system
> backup with rsync Message-ID:
> <20161017214440.8841a03a766414e2342903e9 at bluenox07.de> Content-Type:
> text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Typo fix:
>> -xattrs
>> -hard-links
>> -acls
> Should be of course:
>
> --xattrs
> --hard-links
> --acls
>
>
> Regards,
>
> mearon
>
> -- Merlin B?ge <toni at bluenox07.de> ------------------------------
> Message: 8 Date: Mon, 17 Oct 2016 21:51:20 +0200 From: Merlin B?ge
> <toni at bluenox07.de> To: General Discussion about Arch Linux
> <arch-general at archlinux.org> Subject: Re: [arch-general] Full system
> backup with rsync Message-ID:
> <20161017215120.227223166f93ea4f85163577 at bluenox07.de> Content-Type:
> text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Sorry for the spam.
>> If you are willing to spend some time reading, here is a good article which
>> mentions some pitfalls regarding backups.
> Here is it: http://www.halfgaar.net/backing-up-unix
>
> Should go to bed now...
>
>
> Regards,
>
> mearon
>
>
> Merlin B?ge <toni at bluenox07.de>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 9
> Date: Mon, 17 Oct 2016 22:24:39 +0200
> From: Ralf Mardorf <silver.bullet at zoho.com>
> To: arch-general at archlinux.org
> Subject: Re: [arch-general] Full system backup with rsync
> Message-ID: <20161017222439.0bb24a0b at utnubu>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
>
> On Mon, 17 Oct 2016 21:42:03 +0200, Merlin B?ge wrote:
>> Also cp -pr does not preserve links or xattrs for example. Maybe cp
>> -ar would be more appropriate.
> Ok, actually I regularly backup to a tar archive and at least links are
> preserved. I seemingly missed to use the --xattrs switch, fortunately
> this never caused an issue for me, but I consider to add it to my
> scripts soon.
>
> Thank you for the pointer and my apologies for the false advice.
>
> Regards,
> Ralf
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
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> End of arch-general Digest, Vol 144, Issue 15
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hi everyone
thanks  Ralf and Merlin for the pointers
i found the backing-up-unix article very informative.
the method i choose was with a live disk and arch-chroot,
i need to read up on systemd-nspawn more before i use it.
the laptop booted up with the swapped drive without any problems apart from
a few warnings that some file times was in the future.
thanks again
shadrock