Advice on backups

[Paul Schmehl]

I manage a couple of servers on the internet. There are no backup or test 
servers, so I have to do everything on live systems that are serving 
webpages, handling mail, etc.

Historically, I've used rsync and ssh to backup server1 to server2 and vice 
versa. I decided I would prefer an offsite backup system in case both 
servers failed at the same time, and because server2 was running out of 
space because of backups.

So, I setup some scripts to create gzipped tarballs and transfer those to 
my Dropbox account. (I have plenty of space there.) I run the scripts 
daily, and the files are named with the date of the backup (e.g. 
120518.websites.tgz)

On the webserver, I'm backing up /usr/local/www, /etc, and /usr/local/etc. 
I've also created a backup directory in my home directory where I put 
copies of all the scripts I run, plus a text file of crontab and a few 
other things. I then zipped that and copied it to Dropbox as well. I don't 
have a script for it, because those things don't change that often.

Am I missing anything important? I tested untarring one of the tarballs 
into my home directory, and if I understand it correctly, I would need to 
untar these in / if I ever need to restore anything.

Paul Schmehl, Retired
As if it wasn't already obvious, my opinions
are my own and not those of my employer.
*******************************************
"It is as useless to argue with those who have
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