[lug] Backup comparison: rdiff-backup and rsync snapshots

[Sean Reifschneider]

On Thu, Dec 22, 2005 at 02:44:42PM -0700, Bear Giles wrote:
>Sean Reifschneider wrote:
>>that.  Sure, the 2GB database files that have some regular changes hurt a
>>bit, but rotating old backups off saves the day.
>
>Aren't file-based backups of a live database a Really Bad Idea?   I 
>thought the proper procedure was a database dump.

It depends on the database.  In the case of this database, where it was
just appending data until you did an optimize, it wasn't really an issue.

>My systems perform a nightly pg_dumpall.  If we lose the database I'll 
>restore it from that file instead of the /var/lib/postgres backups.

Yep, I use, not surprisingly, dbbackup, which makes copies of postgres and
RPM database, rotates them off, and also MySQL if you provide it with the
password.  That's a package I wrote a few years ago, just a simple shells
cript.

>I thought you couldn't hardlink a directory.

Correct, but all the files you can.  You don't WANT to hardlink the
directory, that would totally blow the reason for doing the links.

Thanks,
Sean
-- 
 "How can just a few feet of unshielded twisted pair bring SO much joy?"
                 -- Paul Orosz on DSL, paraphrasing Homer Simpson
Sean Reifschneider, Member of Technical Staff <jafo at tummy.com>
tummy.com, ltd. - Linux Consulting since 1995: Ask me about High Availability