Backup System

[pgp_protector]

I've got a 3TB Drive that I'm looking at using for a Secure Backup system, with a few caveats

1) The Drive will be Internal but will be Switched Off / Disconnected (via an external switch if possible (may have to make it myself) )
2) When Connected & System is booted, it will boot off this drive & run a Linux OS (Ubuntu I'm thinking as I'm comfortable with that)
3) I want it to then Scan the Other Drives in Predefined Directories for archiving / backing up data, Only AFTER if verifies that the files are clean (no Virus / Trojans )
4) The System will need to be able to access NAS Storage also on the network, and Windows NTFS Drives.

Any Advice ?

 

[EphesiaNZ]

1. Why internal? - Backup media should never really reside in the machine it's backing up and should be able to be taken offsite if needed. Put the drive in an external housing and attach via USB or eSATA.

2. You could install Ubuntu to the backup drive and you'd have to boot it via the Bios boot menu during startup.

3. You can use ClamAV (ubuntu repos) to verify cleanliness of files. There is a lot of options for backing up files in Linux, either using Ubuntu's inbuilt backup utility or a more robust one like rsync or even bacula.

4. Now Samba is the obvious choice for access FAT/NTFS shares across the network.

If you have a NAS, Why are you not backing up directly to that then you could copy backed up files to the 3GB drive externally?

Another option possibly would be use an encrypted online backup such as Tarsnap. Data is encrypted at your end so even if it was stolen at the remote site then it would be of no use as you hold the key - even the Tarsnap people can't see it. The inventor of this service is the security officer for FreeBSD, so he knows his stuff.

 

[pgp_protector]

1) The primary reason I'm wanting internal so it gets used.
2) I don't want any access to the Drive when running Windows (Hines the switch) so If I ever end up with one of the Encryption Viruses they won't be able to nuke the backup drives.
3) Cool
4) Currently using this

The problem with the new Trojans is they can also Hit NAS on the network.

This isn't really to prevent stealing of my info, but to prevent damage from stuff like CryptoLocker and its variants.

 

[EphesiaNZ]

If you want to go the internal route, then you don't really need any on/off switch on the 3G hard drive. If you install Ubuntu on that drive then the file system will be EXT4 by default and this is unreadable by Windows natively so there's little to worry about there IMHO. Ubuntu will read all common Linux and Windows file systems by default so the backing up side is fine.

Just remember that backups will not prevent things like cryptolocker but will give you an option to recover files, should the worst happen. Before you commit to anything, you might want to take a look at this,

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BackupYourSystem

as this will explain your options.

 

[pgp_protector]

Thanks, looks like I know what my weekend project will be.

 

[pgp_protector]

Well first install didn't work so well

(Disconnected Win HD's so 0 chance of damaging OS)
New 3TB Drive Ubuntu 14.04 Encrypted Drive install

Can't boot to it when Win Drives connected (UEFI Enabled on System, going to try again after church)

 

[EphesiaNZ]

Can't boot to it when Win Drives connected (UEFI Enabled on System, going to try again after church)

Ah UEFI, don't have any personal experience of it and it's a right royal pain.

Try looking through this,

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UEFI

That should hopefully get you back on track.

 

[Jacob Jilg]

On the topic of huge backups, I don't see the need (unless you've got a profession with actual TB of data, like maybe video editing). I've thought about getting a Time Machine to back up my Mac, but I just don't have all that much to back up. I mean my iMac is 2TB, but I've only made about 100GB of artwork and photos, so I just put it all on my 160GB iPod Classic via USB from time to time. All the apps I can just always download from the internet and the App Store again, and given the nature that apps are constantly upgrading I don't want to have a backup that will probably become an old version anyway. It worked for a successful backup method when I formatted to do a clean install of Yosemite. Other than having to reset many user preferences I don't see anything missing.

 

[EphesiaNZ]

Lets hope your iPod doesn't get stolen at the same time your iMac suddenly crashes or the hard drive dies...

But some sort of backup is better than none.

 

[pgp_protector]

Well round 2 worked better, Have to leave Secure Boot off, and My Bios is switching back to Windows Drive at times.

Default backup software threw an error when trying my initial backup

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/usr/bin/duplicity", line 1494, in <module>
with_tempdir(main)
File "/usr/bin/duplicity", line 1488, in with_tempdir
fn()
File "/usr/bin/duplicity", line 1337, in main
do_backup(action)
File "/usr/bin/duplicity", line 1458, in do_backup
full_backup(col_stats)
File "/usr/bin/duplicity", line 542, in full_backup
globals.backend)
File "/usr/bin/duplicity", line 411, in write_multivol
vi.set_hash("SHA1", gpg.get_hash("SHA1", tdp))
File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/duplicity/gpg.py", line 401, in get_hash
fp = path.open("rb")
File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/duplicity/path.py", line 542, in open
result = open(self.name, mode)
IOError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: '/tmp/duplicity-HTLPKE-tempdir/mktemp-1b37E9-244'

Will take a look around for other backup software & try again.

 

[EphesiaNZ]

Default backup software threw an error when trying my initial backup

If you haven't already run an update/upgrade

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

and maybe,

sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

That should bring it up to date and try deja dup (i think that's Ubuntu's default backup software) again.

If it's still not working then it might be better to use rysnc at the command line or via a gui such as grsync,

Grsync And GAdmin-Rsync: The Graphical Front-end Applications For Rsync Tool | Unixmen

Rsync (Remote Sync): 10 Practical Examples of Rsync Command in Linux

 

[pgp_protector]

Didn't show any updated required.

Had to wipe out the backup directory to get it to do a full run again, this time I tried with fewer directories added, and after work, will add them in a slower fashion.

 

[pgp_protector]

Now if I can just get My BIOS To Stick

Set UEFI Secure Boot -> Disable
Set Boot Order : UBUNTU, Windows Disabled, USB Floppy Drive Disabled USB CD Disabled.
SAVE, System Reset, and GRUB Menu shows as expected.

If I Reboot (Restart) I Get GRUB

Let it Boot to Windows. (Boot's successfully )
RESTART , System Restarts to Windows
Go back to BIOS, and Windows is now the Main Boot Device(USB Devices still Disabled), Ubuntu back on the bottom.

 

[pgp_protector]

Well BIOS still isn't sticking, but at least I can now boot to GRUB after running
bcdedit /set {bootmgr} path \EFI\ubuntu\grubx64.efi
In Windows.

Next finish configuring backup to run, then customize the Desktop to the way I want.
And maybe install some VMs, Android SDKs and other fun toys

 

[EphesiaNZ]

Cool, looks like you're getting there. UEFI is a major pain in Linux and especially dual booting with Windows. This is why I tend not to mix a backup server/system along with a running or production system/server. A NAS server is purposed to do that backup role generally.