System Backup

Keith Winston on NewsForge
writes:

In eight years of running Linux, I had never needed to completely restore a production system. Most restores were for individual files or directories. In moments like this, it is evident how important a well-tested backup system is.

This is a complete lesson on running complete system backups and restores using nothing more than tar and some scripts to run it.

For those who are stuck using expensive, commercial software to do server backups, try out Keith’s method. It’ll likely save money on software while providing a universally-understood method of backing up and restoring data (since having tar is as common as having a keyboard).