We are finally ready to complete this series and leave you with a fully functional and cost free backup solution.
Now that you have your server setup and have an initial copy of the data you want to backup on the box, we’re ready to go back to our source machine and setup our backups. As you saw in the last post, we’re using rsync to conduct the backups. The beauty of rsync is that it only moves changed blocks of data. Let’s say you have a 3GB mail store such as an Outlook PST. Each day you use your mail, the file will change. Rather than copying the complete file each time, rsync will only copy the blocks that have changed. Not only does this save a ton on time, but it will save a ton of bandwidth and frustration. Here’s how we set it up:
cd ~ vi backup.sh
Add the following line then save and exit:
rsync -rtvh --size-only --delete /source/volume/ xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:/target/volume/backup/
Now let’s setup our cron job
sudo crontab -e
Now add the following:
10 */12 * * * /script/location/backup.sh
Conclusion
That’s it! You now have your own off-site backup server for which you have complete control and pay no monthly subscriptions.
Geek out and ENJOY!
~GT~