# Backup Solutions



## tzoi516 (Nov 20, 2013)

I've read various threads about backing up, but I was just wondering what software seasoned FreeBSD users use for HDD backups. I've read about Bacula, Clonezilla, dd(1), and dump(8)/restore(8).

I know some of them won't work for my environment (live with zfs(8) and geli(8) slices). Thanks for anything shared.


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## id (Nov 20, 2013)

There are a lot of solutions depending on your needs, you can just use rsync if you want to periodically backup just a few files/directories. There's more canned solutions like BackupPC, Bacula and Amanda, each with varying complexity.

For stuff I don't care much about (media directory) I just have rsync in a cronjob that keeps two PCs (GELI/ZFS) in sync. For my servers I run BackupPC, but it doesn't scale that well and I am considering other the other options I mentioned.


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## jrm@ (Nov 20, 2013)

I'm not sure I qualify as a seasoned FreeBSD user and maybe this isn't really "HDD backup", but file synchronization/backup.

I use a combination of devel/fossil and net/unison-nox11.  For files that I need version control and history I use fossil.  For files I just want synchronized between my laptop and desktop (and a third system as the backup) I use unison, which can synchronize files in both directions.

http://www.fossil-scm.org/index.html/doc/tip/www/index.wiki
http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~bcpierce/unison/


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## wblock@ (Nov 20, 2013)

It depends on the system and data to be backed up.  restore(8) are discussed in Backup Options For FreeBSD, along with some mention of dd(1), rsync(1), and tar(1).

sysutils/rsnapshot can duplicate data to another system.

I've heard http://www.tarsnap.com is pretty popular.(8) manual page" href="https://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=dump/man] and restore(8) are discussed in Backup Options For FreeBSD, along with some mention of dd(1), rsync(1), and tar(1).

sysutils/rsnapshot can duplicate data to another system.

I've heard http://www.tarsnap.com is pretty popular.&sektion=8&manpath=freebsd-release-ports">dump/man] and restore(8) are discussed in Backup Options For FreeBSD, along with some mention of dd(1), rsync(1), and tar(1).

sysutils/rsnapshot can duplicate data to another system.

I've heard http://www.tarsnap.com is pretty popular.(8)


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## segfault (Nov 20, 2013)

+1 to tarsnap, just found out about that earlier this week thanks to the Faces of BSD thread where interviewee mentions it. Looks pretty sweet.


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## aupanner (Nov 20, 2013)

For ZFS based mounts, one can use a combination of `zfs send ...` and `zfs receive` to a remote system, USB drive, external NAS, etc.


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## DarkLord (Nov 20, 2013)

I would also say I wouldn't qualify as a "seasoned user" of FreeBSD, but regardless, you might want to check out duplicity. I haven't had much personal experience with it yet, but it looks like a pretty nice tool for backing up data. There is also a GUI front-end to it which I believe is called Deja Dup, but I am not aware of a FreeBSD port of it.


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## fluca1978 (Nov 22, 2013)

I'm used to prepare a script that basically runs rsync(1) against either a local or remote target, and in the latter case to export the ssh(1) keys by myself. However, there is also a good project from PC-BSD: Life Preserver.


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## phoenix (Nov 23, 2013)

rsbackup


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