How The Backup Process Has Changed

While we're not that large, we use a combination of rsync, tar and gpg for our backup.  We
rsync all systems, including remote ones, nightly, to a structure held on a RAIDes server
large enough to handle the volume, each system being backed up using a standardised script
with the system name as a parameter.  Each filesystem, or rather copy of the filesystem, is
then tar'ed into an archive area, with the required number of days archives automatically
rotating.  Midweek, we gpg the tarballs of the critical systems onto removable disks and ship
them to offsite storage, with 6 week's data held offsite.  At the weekends, we rsync the
rsync'ed volumes (if you see what I mean) to a hosting company, which is also where we can do
DR.

DR recovery is quick, because there's no untar'ing to be done, and if necessary whole
filesystems can be mounted.

It's not infinitely extensible, and probably practically tops out at about 2TB of data, but it
works for us.

Thanks for the type of article that makes sysadmins purr with pleasure.

S