Unix Backup and Recovery

Chapter 2. Backing It All Up

In Chapter 1, we looked at disaster recovery as a whole. The nuts and bolts of backup and recovery are but a small part of the overall disaster recovery picture. Before we begin looking at the details of how to perform certain types of backups, let’s look at backups in general.

Don’t Skip This Chapter!

The casual reader might assume that this chapter is an introduction to basic backup concepts. While that is, in fact, the purpose of this chapter, it is also true that many seasoned administrators are unfamiliar with the ideas presented here. One reason for this is that administrators find themselves constantly being pulled away from “mundane” activities like backups for things that are thoughtto be more “important”—like installing new servers and figuring out why the systems are running slowly. Also, many administrators may go several years without ever needing a restore. (The need to use your backups on a regular basis would undoubtedly change your ideas about their importance.)

I wrote this book because backups (and recoveries) have been my primary area of emphasis for several years, and I would like to share the lessons I’ve learned from this focused activity. This chapter provides an overview of how your backups should work. It also explains many basic, yet extremely important, concepts upon which any good backup plan should be based and upon which any implementation discussed in this book will be based.

There are many stories in this book, like the ...