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Network-based Encrypted Backup in 15 Minutes
Amanda writes "Many of us plan for mundane (but important) tasks like setting up backup during long weekends. Much of it is because of complexity and cumbersome nature of the tasks involved. This article shows how to quickly and securely set up a network-based backup, all using freely downloadable software tools like Amanda, Samba and Tar."
The 15-Minute Backup Solution
... Round here it's more like 1 hour
Secure Network Backups in a Heterogeneous Environment in the Time it Takes to Have Pizza Delivered
That's some crazy Sh!t
Far too long. I just use rdiff-backup for easy incremental remote backups (Including ACL and extended attributes).
I still don't know why it is so unknown...
Move Sig. For great justice.
It seems to me that the 15 minuten setup guide does neither do nor stress the importance of comparing the backup to the original after it has been written. Comparison serves two purposes:
a) Make sure your backup is readable
b) Make sure your backup decrypts and is equal to the original data
Especially b) is often not the case due to RAM errors and other problems. With encryption a single bit-error after encryption can make your whole file permanently unreadable. a) can be violated by a number of things, but when you need that backup, it is too late to find out.
Never, ever do backup without full compare afterwards! From time to time do a full restoration to other hardware to be sure you know how to do it and that it works!
Seems to me this is really worth only the 15 minutes you need to put into it. But it can give you a dangerou, false sense of having understood how to do good backups.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.