Besides my own docs, I would like to know what are the most important files to b/u in OSS 11.3? I looked in the manuals, but I’m not sure.
Better yet, is there a set of instructions somewhere on using the system b/u / restoration in Yast? I figure it says which files / folders are system critical.
Thanks in advance!
There isn’t a simple rule for everyone because everyone uses Linux differently. So it depends on how many changes you have made to your installed system.
I back up /home (which also has all my user configuration files in it) and my mysql databases as I have not made any significant changes to the default installation. If you have made changes in, for example, /etc, you may wish to back these files up too. In practice, reinstalling from scratch is generally quicker than reinstalling from a backup of your whole system unless you have made a lot of changes to your system.
Definitely your /home, including VMs (virtual machines) and hidden files (those starting with a “.”). You should consider in what scenarios you’ll use the backup. As a domestic/work end user (not a db or sys admin), you’d need a backup in basically two situations: a) when you have a catastrophic hardware failure or b) when you delete something unintentionally. For current files you may also use a pendrive or other temporary external storage, to avoid generating a full backup every time a little file change.
Case a) usually leads to a new install, most probably of a new oS version (and new file systems). In that case restoring your previous /home directory is a good idea to minimize customization time.
In case b) your backup has to be very up to date, which may not always be the case, so it can be complemented with an external online backup system like dropbox or spideroak - we are experimenting with spideroak at work and it looks very good, and also replace (with advantages) the pendrive during the home-work travel.
I’m sure there are many more sophisticated/pro apps for incremental backups over the network and such, but for a uncomplicated, mostly transparent system thats what has been working for me.
Of course, your requirements may vary.
Thanks for your replies. I have more specifics about what to save.