Chapter 4. Backups

Table of Contents

Introduction
Backup media
Magnetic Tape
CD-ROM
Hard Disk
Which form of Media to use?
Securing your backup
Backup concepts
Backup software
mt
tar
cpio
dump and restore
dd
Open source backup solutions
AMANDA -- http://www.amanda.org/
Roll your own
Performing a backup
Verifying Backups
Restore from backup

Introduction

If you've worked with computers for any length of time, you should already be aware of the importance of keeping good, up-to-date backups. The definition of a good backup is one that you are able to restore from!

Backups guard against hardware failures (such as the hard disk drive in your server breaking), accidental file deletion and even physical theft (such as someone pinching your laptop).