I only want to do manual backups...is there a way to shut off the automatic periodic backups?
I only want to do manual backups. I don't want the scheduled automatic backups. Is there a way to shut the automatic ones off?
10 Replies
What is the best method of backing up and restoring? The dd command is too slow.
dd is not and was never designed to be a backup program…or the foundation of a more complex backup system.
In the Linode context, there are three choices for backups:
- Linode backups (which you've already eschewed);
- backups to block storage; or
- backups to object storage.
With respect to object storage, it's going to be the most secure since it's (most likely) going to be stored offsite from the data center where your Linode is located. However, object storage does not have file system semantics so you have to jump through a lot of hoops to set it up (and keep it running)…and probably to do restores if that becomes necessary.
Block storage is located in the data center where your Linode is located. It's set up and managed just like another disc so it has file system semantics. It also has built-in, automatic replication (replicated 3 times I think…and this is just the nature of the beast…you don’t have to do anything to get this). Presumably, it has some kind of off-site storage for recovery from catastrophes as well but I don’t know that for sure.
As far as backup programs go, there's lots of folks here that use rsync. rsync is pretty common because it's either built in or easily installable in your distro. However, you need to hold rsync's hands a lot to get it to do exactly what you want it to do. Once you get past that phase, rsync is fast and reliable. However, recovery of single objects (e.g. mistakenly deleted files) can be cumbersome (depending on what kind of wrapper you have around rsync).
The other two options mentioned most frequently here are borg and restic. These are true backup programs with lots of features but are pretty easy to use.
My Linode doesn't run Linux so Linode backups are unavailable to me. rsync required me to build a lot of custom infrastructure that I’d have to test extensively and maintain.
I use borg. I have 4 backup sets -- hourly (every 4 hours really), daily, weekly and monthly. Each set has a different retention. I currently have 42 hourly backups (7 days), 60 daily backups, 26 weekly backups and 12 monthly backups all currently online. This consumes 55GiB of block storage.
borg has the advantage (over rsync & restic) of being de-duplicating -- stuff that hasn't changed since the last backup is not backed up again…only a reference to the previously backed up object is stored. This saves both space and time. restic does incremental backups similar to the way rsync does them.
What you ultimately do in this regard will reflect your own needs and goals. I can only tell you that what I do works great for me.
-- sw
PS Both borg and restic allow you to mount backups as file systems so that you can recover (sets of) files or directories without having to restore your whole disc. This is an immensely valuable feature that rsync doesn't have. This feature even works with object storage (which does not have file system semantics).
borg & restic have the advantage (over rsync) of being de-duplicating -- stuff that hasn't changed since the last backup is not backed up again
The rsync command does incremental backups.
https://www.tecmint.com/rsync-local-remote-file-synchronization-commands/
Personally, I mostly use the scp command since most of my files are small such that rsync would not save much time but would add more 'complexity' to my backup scrips. The rsync command is so full of options that it could be someone's entire job description!!!! :-)
The rsync command does incremental backups.
I know… I didn't explain myself well.
See: https://borgbackup.readthedocs.io/en/stable/
Skip down to the heading Main Features / Space efficient storage for an explanation of borg's de-deduplication scheme. restic does incremental backups similar to the way rsync does them. borg only does backups…it's internals figure out the "increments".
borg is written in python. restic is written in go. Since go is a compiled language, restic is blazing fast. borg achieves time savings using it's de-duplication scheme.
The rsync command is so full of options that it could be someone's entire job description!!!! :-)
Yes. Sacré bleu!
-- sw
Thanks for the input. I have tried out rsync, restic and a few others. Whilst they do the job intended well, if not mistaken the Linode backup system is the only way I see to do a complete restoration of the instance as it was when the backup was created since the server is temporarily shut down when the restoration is done.
Correct me if I'm wrong.
Hello,
You should be able to use rsync to perform a complete restoration of a system if you do it correctly, but it will definitely take more time. Assuming you aren't doing anything unusual with Linode booting such as raw disks and the like, you shouldn't have a problem booting the Linode again after the rsync restore. The rsync backup will have to be done correctly if you want to restore the Linode properly from its backup, in that, you'll need to back up every file and folder, as root, to a service that can accept every file and folder with its file permissions and user/group ids correctly, excluding anything in temporarily mounted file systems like /dev, /proc, /sys, /tmp, etc. It can get a bit complex to set up properly, then, to restore it, you'll need to boot a newly created Linode into rescue mode for the best results, wipe its disk, and restore your rsync backup. It's definitely quicker and easier to do this with the Linode backup service.
As I'm not sure if anyone actually answered the question regarding the Linode backup service here, I'll propose a possible answer. There is no way you can disable the automatic backups on the Linode backup service while you're using it. However, you do have the option of creating a single manual snapshot of your Linode, which will override any previously created manual snapshot you have created. You can have only one manual snapshot taken via the Linode backup service, which should stay around as long as your Linode isn't deleted.
Hopefully, this helped to answer your question.
Blake
You can have only one manual snapshot taken via the Linode backup service, which should stay around as long as your Linode isn't deleted.
I believe the one-time snapshot will disappear if you cancel the Linode backup service.
Can you download a Linode backup? Again, I believe you can't.
While I do my own backups to a third party service (https://rsync.net/) , I also now use the inexpensive Linode service. For an extra few bucks a month, why not? One day I may be very glad I did, but I hope it is not soon… or ever!!!
@acanton77 You are correct, I forgot about that. Canceling the Linode backup service will remove any manual and automatic backups made while you had it. Also, there is no easy method to download a backup from the Linode backup service as any sort of disk image. This would involve the temporary creation of a second Linode with a restore from any backup created on the one using the Linode backup service, then using any method desired for file downloads to retrieve any data, or the entire disk, from the backup.