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I have a small server and want to create a safety backup to my home.
How do I best achieve this?
I read about rsync, however, as far as I understand it may make files in use be inconsistent. E.g. my mysql data-file may be inconsistent, resulting in the database being useless. This is bad.
How to best make a backup with everything being consistent?
Any tips on what to use and especially whether restoring the backup works fine?

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You need to use 2-step-backup:

  • Make a MySQL Dump on a remote host.

# mkdir /backups

# mysqldump -A > /backups/all-databases.sql

  • Make a File Dump on remote host.

# tar -cvpf /backups/fullbackup.tar --directory=/ --exclude=proc --exclude=sys --exclude=dev/pts --exclude=backups .

(You can also exclude /var/lib/mysql, but i dont do this)

You can do all that by the cron and get 2 files all-databases.sql and fullbackup.tar by rsync. It can not make an inconsistent data.

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  • Does this mean, that there is no solution to the inherent problem? That I have to make a seperate backup-"hack" for all programs that potentially modify a file?
    – user2089648
    Commented Aug 26, 2014 at 8:51
  • Yes, you need to take care of program, that can modify its variable data during making the backup. Often you need do this only with Databases.
    – ArcherGodson
    Commented Aug 26, 2014 at 10:12
  • "It can not make an inconsistent data" – this statement is wrong. You can still get inconsistent data as tar doesn't create a filesystem snapshot. The MySQL dump will be consisntent but other files might have changed in the mean time. If you need consistent data you should have a look at lvm snapshots and similar techniques which increase the likelihood of getting consistent data.
    – Felix Schwarz
    Commented Jun 10, 2015 at 21:01

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