How to back up whole Linux server?

TheCompWiz · May 3, 2018

Hi everyone, Can you tell me how to back up whole my Linux server? I mean I want to backup all files and databases on entire server and when I reinstall my server then I can restore that backup and I can use it immediately whiteout re-configure or installations?

AECHostingNet · May 3, 2018

You're referring to a bare metal restore. You'll want to look around for backup software that can do this for you. R1soft seems to be one of the more popular choices among sysadmins.

I know from my experience backup software tends to be frustrating. Things can happen and your backups may not be reliable. R1soft tends to be one that sucks the least and is somewhat affordable.

24x7serverman · May 3, 2018

One can also take backup using rsync command but this is not a good solution for the server.

R1Soft would be the best option.

VirtuBox · May 4, 2018

TheCompWiz said:
Hi everyone, Can you tell me how to back up whole my Linux server? I mean I want to backup all files and databases on entire server and when I reinstall my server then I can restore that backup and I can use it immediately whiteout re-configure or installations?

Hello,
you can make a snapshot of your whole disk or partition with the command dd :

Bash:

# /dev/sda is the disk to backup 
dd if=/dev/sda ibs=4096 conv=noerror | gzip > backup.image.gz

Then you will be able to restore it with

Bash:

zcat backup.image.gz | dd of=/dev/sda ibs=4096

mobin · May 10, 2018

Please note that the snapshot option will work only against of your data partition if you want to reinstall the OS for any specific reason. Also a customized system like cPanel, Plesk, etc this is not a complete solution. But of course this is the quickest if the server is under your direct configuration. That said....reinstall OS and no re-configuration do not match. If you reinstall the OS, that means the package installation and all should do again - you can only backup configuration in that case. Otherwise it will be still your old OS.

So to answer your actual question - as said, it will be based on your server environment and what all data you want to restore.

Nixtree · May 11, 2018

I will always suggest to do backups only on account level rather than server level. Suppose you are initially in a Old Os say centos5 and your backups are taken like this, then if you wish to upgrade the Os or wish to change the Os , then it will not work. Also entire Os will take time to get restored.

For control panel based one I will suggest to get a copy of accounts in thier own platform like pkgaccount in case of cpanel, Plesk dumps in case of plesk etc which will help us to restore all its subitems and links as one domain will have 100s of references and we will not be able to manually handle all those references.

Your method will only work for those which you setup custom and not for cpanel/plesk/directadmin ones. If you can let us know the exact environment for which you need and also what scenarios you need to cover we can be more helpful to you.

Environment : Which Os and Which Control panel in use ?

1. you want single accounts to be restored ?
2. Speedy accounts restore of all accounts incase of Os reinstall
3. you want to have a single file to be restored ?
4. Single db to be restored ?

TheCompWiz · May 12, 2018

Nixtree said:
I will always suggest to do backups only on account level rather than server level. Suppose you are initially in a Old Os say centos5 and your backups are taken like this, then if you wish to upgrade the Os or wish to change the Os , then it will not work. Also entire Os will take time to get restored.
For control panel based one I will suggest to get a copy of accounts in thier own platform like pkgaccount in case of cpanel, Plesk dumps in case of plesk etc which will help us to restore all its subitems and links as one domain will have 100s of references and we will not be able to manually handle all those references.
Your method will only work for those which you setup custom and not for cpanel/plesk/directadmin ones. If you can let us know the exact environment for which you need and also what scenarios you need to cover we can be more helpful to you.
Environment : Which Os and Which Control panel in use ?
1. you want single accounts to be restored ?
2. Speedy accounts restore of all accounts incase of Os reinstall
3. you want to have a single file to be restored ?
4. Single db to be restored ?

Nixtree said:
Environment : Which Os and Which Control panel in use ?

I like using Centos 6 for my Linux server

Nixtree said:
1. you want single accounts to be restored ?

Not only any accounts, I wanted to backup whole linux server on my VPS so when I restore the file, it will restore all configurations and data and I can use it immediately.

Nixtree said:
3. you want to have a single file to be restored ?

Yes, it is great if I can have a backup file and restore it with ssh.

Nixtree said:
4. Single db to be restored ?

Databases already included in the backup file.

Nixtree · May 13, 2018

I have been using Dirvish for a customer for the last 6 years and I can see those are really good and handy. We add mysql backup dump script and cpanel pkgacount script skipping homedir and the backup we take is incremental one using dirvish.

So such a setup we can restore
one file,
one db,
one cpanel account using restore of the pkg account first and then restore the corresponding /home/user folder.
and if the entire server is gone, we can restore the account initially using cpanel pkg account backups and then we can rysnc the files and db using the backups with dirvish backup server

http://dirvish.org/

i like this very much and is very handy so far as an admin I really like to work from command line which give me more flexibility rather than going with r1soft front end interface.

vashishtha_serverguy · May 15, 2018

You can backup your whole Linux server using a simple command
Open your terminal and run this command

Code:

$ sudo rsync -aAXv / --exclude={"/dev/*","/proc/*","/sys/*","/tmp/*","/run/*","/mnt/*","/media/*","/lost+found"} /mnt

David Beroff · May 16, 2018

VirtuBox said:
It will not backup mysql databases properly, you have to stop MySQL before making a copy if you want to make sure databases will not be corrupted.

you have to stop MySQL before making a copy if you want to make sure databases will not be corrupted.

@VirtuBox This will need to do when running backup for whole Linux server for every command?

Internet-Buff · Aug 6, 2018

I am using VPSrobots to manage my Linux server and site for a while. I backed up my entire server with VPSrobots to Amazon S3 storage before, it is really fast and easy to use. You can back up your site in real time, or create a schedule to back it up automatically.

How to back up whole Linux server?

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