Remote Backups

jm · 2007-04-24 22:38:02

Does anyone have any links to some simple, remote backup tutorials? I’m going to another university this summer for a few courses, but I’d like to backup my iMac to a Linux box at home. I have an external drive, but it’s clicking a lot (and my other one died last month), so I’m thinking a remote backup would be the safest in the event of drive failure on the Mac, theft, fire, etc.

The PC is awaiting a fresh install of Linux — very broken Ubuntu install (too much fun with rm -r * :P). Any suggestions on a light Linux install? I’m OK with a command line interface only, since the computer will be headless. The PC specs: 3ghz, 512MB ram, 120GB hard drive.

Last edited by jm (2007-04-24 22:46:48)

marios · 2007-04-24 22:57:48

Not remote. But the question is also, what exactly do you want to back up?
The first thing I would do in your situation, is get an external Mac OS X Firewire enclosure ( OXFORD CHIPSET ), or a combo ( Lacie will do ) and make an entire snapshot of your startup Volume with SuperDuper. (bootable)
Boot up from that Volume to see if it works and put it in Bank Safe Deposit.

That’s the only safe way to get a fully bootable SystemBackup the way it is. ( Must be formatted Mac OS Extended Journaled )

Other options: Start up the migration Assistant. ( What if your Boot Volume dies though ? )

For critical data in your Home Folder one option is to place an encrypted sparse image on a Live Server and then mount this on your client mashine.

regards, marios

jm · 2007-04-25 00:10:35

I’ll only be backing up my photos. Later this year, I’m planning on purchasing another Firewire drive, but for now all my funds are going towards summer tuition and living expenses (dorms, food). That’s why I’m interested in a remote backup, since I’ve already got everything setup and paid for.

Here’s my awesome ASCII diagram of my ideal backup system. Basically everthing would use cron and rsync to stay together, I just don’t know how to make my PC accessible from ssh/shel.


                               |-----External Drive (clone of PC drive)
                               |  
                        |-----PC back home
                        |
         |-----~/Pictures
         |
      iMac
         |
         |-----~/Music
         |           |
         |           |-----iPod
         |
         |-----~/Sites
                     |
                     |-----Site5 server

Last edited by jm (2007-04-25 00:11:41)

hakjoon · 2007-04-25 03:42:40

Get SSH setup on the PC.
Get a dynamic DNS account. I’ve used dyndns.org for a few years now with pretty good success but there are others out there as well like no IP
Setup a dynDNS client to phone home everytime your IP changes. There should be a bunch in your distro’s repository and they don’t really require much setup. Normally just your account information.
Open port 22 in your router and forward it to the Linux box
ssh yourdomain.dyndns.org

jm · 2007-04-25 06:21:14

Thanks Patrick. I figured out another solution that’ll work for the next 3 months away, but I’ll probably setup a backup server for home use:

Back up all current data to the PC and external drive and turn them off before leaving.
Upload any new photos to Box.net, or if it’s more than 1GB, either my own host or Jungledisk/S3. S3 also looks pretty cool, and $0.15/GB is cheaper than leaving a PC on all the time.

Last edited by jm (2007-04-25 06:22:26)

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#1 2007-04-24 22:38:02

Remote Backups

#2 2007-04-24 22:57:48

Re: Remote Backups

#3 2007-04-25 00:10:35

Re: Remote Backups

#4 2007-04-25 03:42:40

Re: Remote Backups

#5 2007-04-25 06:21:14

Re: Remote Backups

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