Linux Backup Software Guide - Timeshift & Back in Time

[@pascal8300]

Thank you for this overview, the topic of backups and upgrading a Linux system is unfortunately discussed far too rarely here on KZbin. These are the biggest problems that people switching from Windows have, I think.

[@PhazerTech]

I'm glad to hear that! With all the people switching over lately I thought this would be a good topic to cover.

[@goodmxrning99]

This is so helpful and reassuring! Thank you. Would you ever consider doing a video about cloud backups for Linux? I quite like the idea of having a physical backup, in combination with a back up in the cloud just in case

[@PhazerTech]

Great to hear! I just use a NAS for my backups, not the cloud, so I personally don't have much experience with doing cloud backups. But I've looked into it and this cloud provider is highly recommended: www.rsync.net/index.html Many different backup applications are supported.

[@PeterHonig.]

Very useful video. On my systems, I run Timeshift daily and have the retention policy set for 5 daily copies and 3 weekly copies. I also invoke Timeshift just prior to installing any new application just in case it doesn't behave well. For disk imaging, I use RedoRescue, which is just like Rescuezillla but without the cloning feature. I image my disks weekly and store the images on both an NVMe SSD as well as on one of my NAS units, which replicates the data to another NAS twice a week. Lastly, because I use Kubuntu KDE Plasma, I use its built-in incremental file backup application (called Kup) weekly, which also sends its data to the NAS units. The nice thing about Kup is that the incremental storage (backing up only what has changed) makes it extremely fast, and efficient with the use of storage memory. As a result of your video, I will take a good look at Back In Time, as I am not familiar with it. Thanks again.

[@PhazerTech]

Thanks! Sounds like you have a very solid backup strategy. And Back in Time also does incremental backups just like Kup does, so at the end of the day it really comes down to personal preference.

[@madprunes]

What is the advantage to using timeshift, if backintime does multiple profiles why wouldn't you just do a root and home profile with the different settings?

[@PhazerTech]

Good question. There's not much info on this but from what I've gathered timeshift does extra checks to make sure the system is still bootable after a restore. Backintime simply copies the files and in certain cases may render the system unbootable. Also timeshift's github page suggests backintime for personal files, likewise backintime's github suggests timeshift for system files. Neither goes into much detail why, but I imagine the devs made those suggestions for a reason.

[@PranjalP21]

This video is really great and helpful. Keep it up!

[@PhazerTech]

Thank you!

[@teachingthecode4651]

I only use BTRFS with timeshift. It's the best snapshot experience. And before anyone says anything about BTRFS, I've been using it on many production systems for ten years now and haven't run into a single issue.

[@PhazerTech]

Nice, I don't have much experience with it but I probably should try it out again. Looks like it's quite a bit faster when doing snapshots?

[@teachingthecode4651]

@@PhazerTech it's instant

[@Rood67]

I installed Garuda which defaults to BTRFS. It auto set snapshots; which is great - except I don’t know how to offload them. I tried Google and there surprisingly little useful info on btrfs send snapshot | btrfs receive mounted usb snapshot As I’m getting a denied error even when run as sudo Thank goodness, the latest version of RescueZilla now handles BTRFS

[@pupfer]

How can you set automatic backups (daily/weekly) on an external drive? What happens if you forget to plug it in at the time set for backup?

[@PhazerTech]

The process is the same for external drives, just make sure you mount the external drive first. If you forget to plug it in then it won't do anything and it will try again next time.

[@dragonballjiujitsu]

I like the combo of timeshift and Kbackup. I don't really bother doing a whole disk image because I'd rather just start from scratch and restore my data if setting up a new system or drive.

[@PhazerTech]

Nice, yea that works too. Having a full disk image is convenient to have and gets you back up and running quicker, but it isn't necessary.

[@Kyouma.]

Um, don't distros like Mint have system snapshots already included?

[@PhazerTech]

Yes Mint already has Timeshift and I mentioned that in the video. But there's lots of different distros and many of them don't have it by default.

[@Rood67]

05:20 - 05:25