Disc image cloning backup solution ?

Cloning a disk image and downloading it regularly is NOT a bomb-proof backup solution.

First of all, you need to shut down your linode whenever you do the cloning, because otherwise some files will change in the middle of the cloning and cause inconsistencies in your filesystem. Do you really want to shut down your linode every day/week/etc just to clone your disk image?

Second, it's a ridiculous waste of space and bandwidth to produce a copy of your entire server every day/week/etc and download it. On most servers, very little data actually changes between those backups. So you'll be cloning and downloading gigabytes upon gigabytes of data that you already have copies of.

In addition, I don't think it would be possible to handle disk cloning with cron, because cron runs inside your linode and disk cloning is done outside of it. (As I said above, you need to shut down your linode first. How would you run cron, or anything else for that matter, when your server is powered off?)

Linode seems to have a backup solution in the works, but nobody here knows when it will be released.

Best solution: learn to use rsync or any of its useful derivatives, such as rdiff-backup or rsnapshot. Use it regularly from your home machine, or better yet, from one of those excellent $15/month backup services. Or maybe using Amazon S3.

Second the rdiff-backup suggestion. I got some useful ideas from this guide when I set mine up. It looks insecure because it has you logging in as root, but it isn't because that key is only allowed to run the specified rdiff command when it logs in.