Red Hat® Linux® 7 Unleashed

Backup Strategies and Operations

The simplest backup strategy is to copy every file from the system to a backup medium. This is called a full backup. Full backups by themselves are good for small systems.

The downside of a full backup is that it can be time-consuming. Restoring a single file from a large backup such as a tape archive can be almost too cumbersome to be of value. Sometimes a full backup is the way to go, and sometimes it is not. A good backup and recovery scheme identifies when a full backup is necessary and when incremental backups are preferred.

Note

If you use your Red Hat Linux system for business, you should definitely have a backup strategy. Creating a formal plan to regularly save critical information, such as customer accounts ...