Thank you for this overview, the topic of backups and upgrading a Linux system is unfortunately discussed far too rarely here on RUclips. These are the biggest problems that people switching from Windows have, I think.
This is so helpful and reassuring! Thank you. Would you ever consider doing a video about cloud backups for Linux? I quite like the idea of having a physical backup, in combination with a back up in the cloud just in case
Great to hear! I just use a NAS for my backups, not the cloud, so I personally don't have much experience with doing cloud backups. But I've looked into it and this cloud provider is highly recommended: www.rsync.net/index.html Many different backup applications are supported.
Very useful video. On my systems, I run Timeshift daily and have the retention policy set for 5 daily copies and 3 weekly copies. I also invoke Timeshift just prior to installing any new application just in case it doesn't behave well. For disk imaging, I use RedoRescue, which is just like Rescuezillla but without the cloning feature. I image my disks weekly and store the images on both an NVMe SSD as well as on one of my NAS units, which replicates the data to another NAS twice a week. Lastly, because I use Kubuntu KDE Plasma, I use its built-in incremental file backup application (called Kup) weekly, which also sends its data to the NAS units. The nice thing about Kup is that the incremental storage (backing up only what has changed) makes it extremely fast, and efficient with the use of storage memory. As a result of your video, I will take a good look at Back In Time, as I am not familiar with it. Thanks again.
Thanks! Sounds like you have a very solid backup strategy. And Back in Time also does incremental backups just like Kup does, so at the end of the day it really comes down to personal preference.
I only use BTRFS with timeshift. It's the best snapshot experience. And before anyone says anything about BTRFS, I've been using it on many production systems for ten years now and haven't run into a single issue.
I installed Garuda which defaults to BTRFS. It auto set snapshots; which is great - except I don’t know how to offload them. I tried Google and there surprisingly little useful info on btrfs send snapshot | btrfs receive mounted usb snapshot As I’m getting a denied error even when run as sudo Thank goodness, the latest version of RescueZilla now handles BTRFS
I like the combo of timeshift and Kbackup. I don't really bother doing a whole disk image because I'd rather just start from scratch and restore my data if setting up a new system or drive.
The process is the same for external drives, just make sure you mount the external drive first. If you forget to plug it in then it won't do anything and it will try again next time.
Leaves out a lot of things. Can I do a differential backup? Can I copy a file directly from the backup without using the software? Can I merge backups? Can I retrieve any earlier version of any backed up file?
The video is only meant to cover the essentials to get up and running. If I were to cover every single detail then it could easily be a 1+ hour video, and I don't think many people will sit through that. If you have specific questions about Back in Time or any other software then check out the FAQ: github.com/bit-team/backintime/blob/dev/FAQ.md Back in Time uses Rsync with hard links so it only copies the changes in each new backup, similar to incremental. Yes you can copy files without the software. And like I pointed out in the video, when restoring something the first thing you need to do is select which backup date you want to restore from, which implies you can retrieve files from earlier backups.
Thank you for this overview, the topic of backups and upgrading a Linux system is unfortunately discussed far too rarely here on RUclips. These are the biggest problems that people switching from Windows have, I think.
I'm glad to hear that! With all the people switching over lately I thought this would be a good topic to cover.
This is so helpful and reassuring! Thank you. Would you ever consider doing a video about cloud backups for Linux? I quite like the idea of having a physical backup, in combination with a back up in the cloud just in case
Great to hear! I just use a NAS for my backups, not the cloud, so I personally don't have much experience with doing cloud backups. But I've looked into it and this cloud provider is highly recommended: www.rsync.net/index.html
Many different backup applications are supported.
Very useful video. On my systems, I run Timeshift daily and have the retention policy set for 5 daily copies and 3 weekly copies. I also invoke Timeshift just prior to installing any new application just in case it doesn't behave well. For disk imaging, I use RedoRescue, which is just like Rescuezillla but without the cloning feature. I image my disks weekly and store the images on both an NVMe SSD as well as on one of my NAS units, which replicates the data to another NAS twice a week. Lastly, because I use Kubuntu KDE Plasma, I use its built-in incremental file backup application (called Kup) weekly, which also sends its data to the NAS units. The nice thing about Kup is that the incremental storage (backing up only what has changed) makes it extremely fast, and efficient with the use of storage memory.
As a result of your video, I will take a good look at Back In Time, as I am not familiar with it. Thanks again.
Thanks! Sounds like you have a very solid backup strategy. And Back in Time also does incremental backups just like Kup does, so at the end of the day it really comes down to personal preference.
This video is really great and helpful. Keep it up!
Thank you!
I only use BTRFS with timeshift. It's the best snapshot experience. And before anyone says anything about BTRFS, I've been using it on many production systems for ten years now and haven't run into a single issue.
Nice, I don't have much experience with it but I probably should try it out again. Looks like it's quite a bit faster when doing snapshots?
@@PhazerTech it's instant
I installed Garuda which defaults to BTRFS. It auto set snapshots; which is great - except I don’t know how to offload them.
I tried Google and there surprisingly little useful info on btrfs send snapshot | btrfs receive mounted usb snapshot
As I’m getting a denied error even when run as sudo
Thank goodness, the latest version of RescueZilla now handles BTRFS
I like the combo of timeshift and Kbackup. I don't really bother doing a whole disk image because I'd rather just start from scratch and restore my data if setting up a new system or drive.
Nice, yea that works too. Having a full disk image is convenient to have and gets you back up and running quicker, but it isn't necessary.
How can you set automatic backups (daily/weekly) on an external drive? What happens if you forget to plug it in at the time set for backup?
The process is the same for external drives, just make sure you mount the external drive first. If you forget to plug it in then it won't do anything and it will try again next time.
Um, don't distros like Mint have system snapshots already included?
Yes Mint already has Timeshift and I mentioned that in the video. But there's lots of different distros and many of them don't have it by default.
05:20 - 05:25
Leaves out a lot of things. Can I do a differential backup? Can I copy a file directly from the backup without using the software? Can I merge backups? Can I retrieve any earlier version of any backed up file?
The video is only meant to cover the essentials to get up and running. If I were to cover every single detail then it could easily be a 1+ hour video, and I don't think many people will sit through that. If you have specific questions about Back in Time or any other software then check out the FAQ: github.com/bit-team/backintime/blob/dev/FAQ.md
Back in Time uses Rsync with hard links so it only copies the changes in each new backup, similar to incremental. Yes you can copy files without the software. And like I pointed out in the video, when restoring something the first thing you need to do is select which backup date you want to restore from, which implies you can retrieve files from earlier backups.