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Top-level
 @TheGibson Kept my backups mounted on `/home/user/backups` so I could have a fully automatic backup script. Accidentally ran `rm -rf /home/user`. Deleting all my files, and the backups too. New rule written in blood: The backup drive is disconnected when I'm not doing backups. I figure this protects me from malware, too? 9 comments
@babble_endanger I've done what you just posted, it hurts @mightywomble @TheGibson Yeah I should probably dig up my AWS creds and figure out how to sync backups to the cloud. Storing that much data on Someone Else's Computer feels pricey though. Maybe I should filter out the pirated movies first. @babble_endanger @thegibson This entirely prevents the primary machine from overwriting its own backups, simply because it doesn't have the required privileges (by design). The dedicated backup machine can even be a cheap repurposed thin client (Fujitsu Futro, Dell Wyse, ...) or something similar. No need for expensive hardware. @toe @TheGibson Yeah I tried to do that, I bought this Awow system, and it refused to boot any distro except this one Debian I tried. It was such a pain that I gave up. I just hate spending money on hardware. If I was willing to put like $800 into a decent NUC and USB hard drive I could do it. But at that point, I'd just build a new gaming desktop and use my old one as the designated cheapo backup server. @babble_endanger @thegibson You can get a used Fujitsu Futro for less than 30 USD. That's x86 hardware with low power consumption (~10W), which even has PCIe and SATA connectors. May be significantly cheaper than consistently burning electricity for an old gaming machine. @toe @TheGibson Thanks, I'll look into it. I haven't had the Kill-A-Watt plugged in for a while, but I'm running the desktop with just its iGPU and I think it's around 30 W. I say "gaming machine" loosely. It plays Portal 2 at good FPS with the dGPU connected. backups should be unmounted when possible. And distributed. Backup to an object store: S3, Azure Blob, etc to get your backups off site. And, don't mount drives under a user dir, toss them under an explicit path you don't access often. |
Gregory's Server
@babble_endanger @TheGibson btdt, learned that rm -rf doesn't descend into symlinked directories.
Disconnected backup does prevent against malware, but the added step of attaching the backup drive easily distracts from making a backup as well.