FAQ

Contents 1 General 1.1 Is backup manager a server tool? 1.2 In which format does Backup Manager store backups? 1.3 What Backup Methods does Backup Manager use? 1.4 What if I want to backup database XYZ or Version Control XYZ which you don't support? 1.5 Is there support for offsite or upload backups? 1.6 How does Backup Manager ensure the security of my backups? 2 Installation 2.1 Is Backup Manager available for distro XYZ? 3 Configuration 3.1 Can Backup Manager mount or dismount a local or remote drive before and after backup? 3.2 Where do I store my backups? 3.3 What do I need to upload to amazon S3? 4 Usage 4.1 How do I restore files? 5 Internal 5.1 Archive Building 5.1.1 What are those *.incremental.bin files around my archives? 5.2 Does DAR compression allow for incremental backups? (method tarball-incremental)

[edit] General

[edit] Is backup manager a server tool?

Backup Manager is designed for both server and desktop applications, it's easy to configure, use and is fully automatic. The reason that it's a command line tool utility is that it's setup to run daily via Cron without intervention from you NOT because it's for advance users only.

[edit] In which format does Backup Manager store backups?

Backup Manager uses only open standard formats: tar, gzip, bzip2, lzma, dar and zip. This means that you can open your backup archives using any standard archiving utility even on different platforms without having to rely on Backup Manager.

[edit] What Backup Methods does Backup Manager use?

When it comes to regular files, Backup Manager can be set to run full backups or full / incremental backups. MySQL and Subversion backups are always full dump.

[edit] What if I want to backup database XYZ or Version Control XYZ which you don't support?

Backup Manager features a Generic Backup Methods which can backup almost anything. You can even use it to connect to remote hosts and backup that host's files or database.

[edit] Is there support for offsite or upload backups?

Yes, Backup Manager can be set to upload the resulting backup archives to remote location via SSH, FTP, RSYNC and can even upload to Amazon S3.

[edit] How does Backup Manager ensure the security of my backups?

Using archive encryption and/or SSH network transfer, but you have to enables these security options in the config file.

• If you don't trust the backup repository, tell BM to encrypt the backup archives.
• If you trust the the backup repository but you'll upload the archives over and insecure network or the Internet, tell BM to upload the archives over SSH
• If you trust neither tell BM to use the above 2 options.

[edit] Installation

[edit] Is Backup Manager available for distro XYZ?

Maybe. Check your package management application. If it's an old version you're advised to manually install the latest release. Manual installation is straight forward. Check Installation for more info.

[edit] Configuration

[edit] Can Backup Manager mount or dismount a local or remote drive before and after backup?

Backup Manager provides and external hooks feature which lets you run scripts before and after a backup is run. These scripts are often used to mount and dismount drives. Check the External Hooks section documentation

[edit] Where do I store my backups?

Naturally your backup device will be another hard disk on your system or a network share. Either way you will need to mount the backup device in your file system. Suggestions include:

• /var/backup This is the conventional place for backup if you want to conform to Linux file system standards. Most systems backup some files in there too, so to avoid confusion make a directory called backup-manager in there and mount the backup device to it.
• /mnt/backup is pretty popular too.
• /var/archives ...

[edit] What do I need to upload to amazon S3?

Backup manager need a few paquages to upload to Amazon S3. You have to install libfile-slurp-perl and libnet-amazon-s3-perl perl libraries.

[edit] Usage

[edit] How do I restore files?

Backup manager stores the backup files in open format like tar, dar, etc. Almost all distros have the appropriate command line and GUI tools to extract the backup files.

If you want a text based GUI to use from the shell try Midnight Commander. It's available in almost all major distros by it's shortname mc. It's a complete file manager that opens all major archive formats. Note: It's been reported that Midnight commander might have problems opening huge 20 GB + TAR archives. The command line tar command does not have this issue.

[edit] Internal

[edit] Archive Building

[edit] What are those *.incremental.bin files around my archives?

These files are built by tar itself when creating incremental archives. Tar uses those files as a catalog in order to remember which files changed since the last archive was made.

[edit] Does DAR compression allow for incremental backups? (method tarball-incremental)

... To be answered!