backup w/ snapshots

[Svein Halvor Halvorsen]

I'm thinking about using snapshots as a kind of backup-mechanism, in order 
to restore accidentally deleted files. Also, in order to avoid losing data 
in case of a fire, etc., I'd like to store the backup off-site. I'm 
thinking about using rsync to syncronize the relevant filesystems to the 
off-site backup-server eg. every day, then taking a snapshot of the remote 
filesystem, mount it as /export/backup/{date} and then nfs-exporting that 
filesystem to the first computer again.

This way I'd have eg. the /home filsystem mirrored in /backup/{date}/home, 
and my /etc in /backup/{date}/etc. I could symlink /backup/yesterday or 
/backup/latest to the correct date.

The network link between the two computers are about 4 Mbps downstream, 
and 640 Kbps upstream. That is; to take a backup is considerable faster
than to restore a file.

Does this sound reasonable? Is there any precautions I should take? Are 
there any other tools better suited for the task at hand?



SVein Halvor