I am new to Linux so I apologize if the questions are stupid.
I have a Debian lenny web server complete with MySQL, dovecot, Postfix Apache, PHP5, etc.
It runs on a server in a datacenter so I have no physical access to the server. If disaster strikes, the datacenter will install a fresh debian lenny with SSH root access, nothing more!
However I can do a "hard" reboot of the server since the data center have a special control panel that can do that.
- How do I make a full backup?
- How do I do incremental backups to minimize bandwidth use (I get charged for bandwidth use)?
- How do I make a disaster recovery procedure so I can get all settings, packages, etc., from the backup?
Best Answer
Given that you have no physical access to the server, nor any apparent means to specify how a restored server will be configured, I would be enlisting the assistance of the hosting company to determine how best to backup your server.
In the likely event that they are of no help, I would:
dpkg-get-selections >/var/backup/package_list
each night, to get the list of packages on the machine/etc
,/var
,/home
, and any other locations which are known to have user-modified data on them, to a remote location (excluding/var/spool
,/var/tmp
,/var/state
, and the live location of any databases)apt-get dselect
, then copying the backups back into place.