Came across an article on how to backup Ubuntu/Debian and related distro package lists, settings, icons and themes Seemed like a useful article, so I skimmed it.
It was about 20 pgs of text and 26 images. Is that really easier? They installed a GUI app that is completely redundant and harder to aut...
11/2018 Update
For Ubuntu 18.04, the commands have changed for network setup thanks to netplan, but the major ideas are still the same.
Hammond is active on the Ubuntu Forums. He has many server setup guides
6/2016 Update
Nothing major, just minor tweaks and a few details added.
4/2015 Update
Seems t...
For a few years now, Linux installations have offered to encrypt our HOME directories as part of the installation. On portable devices, this is a great idea – after all, the risk of loss or stolen equipment on a portable device is real.
Portable Devices NEED Encryption
For a while, I ran virtu...
The Checklist
Stable / Works Every Time
Automatic
Different Storage Media
Fast
Efficient
Secure
Versioned
Offsite / Remote
Restore Tested
When you are looking for a total backup solution, those are the things you want from it....
My old backup method was a little cumbersome. To ensure a good backup set, I’d take down the virtual machine, mount the VM storage on the host (Xen), then perform an rdiff-backup of the entire file system, before bringing the VM back up again. This happened daily, automatically, around 3:30am...
Below is the 3rd of 6 questions from a reader. I definitely don’t have all the answers, but I’m not short on opinions. ;)
Previous articles:
Part 1 – LVM+JFS+RAID | Part 2 – Service Virtualization | Part 3 – Virtualizing Media Storage | Part 4 – Hosting Email
duijf asks:
Q3: I intent (si...
Below is the first of 6 questions from a reader. I definitely don’t have all the answers, but I’m not short on opinion. ;)
Part 1 – LVM+JFS+RAID | Part 2 – Service Virtualization | Part 3 – Virtualizing Media Storage | Part 4 – Hosting Email
duijf asks:
I have a total of 5 qu...
May 2021 Update
Added kernel, header, module removed command to purge them from APT.
Clarified /forcefsck options, slightly.
Jan 2020 Update
A little cleanup.
June 2018 Update
The big ideas below haven’t changed. Really the main change is to using apt instead of aptitude or apt-get for pac...
Some days I feel like a broken record. For the last 5+ years, ever since USB v2.x has been available, people have been spending WAY TO MUCH to have an inferior portable hard disk. We won’t get into all the reasons that you’d want an external hard disk here – just know that they ar...
I like backups. I like them more since losing many, many GBs of data over a decade ago – before I got backup religion.
Many of the long term readers know that I’m always looking for a better backup method.
Back-In-Time
Rdiff-backup Isn’t Perfect
VM-Explorer for Backups
I’ve bee...
I was going to create a Top 10 List of 2010 here. Then started looking through the articles and some constant themes can out.
Virtualization For Desktops and Servers
Tagged as Virtualization
Laptop Virtualization
VirtualBox Performance Tips
VirtualBox on Ubuntu
KVM on Ubuntu
Win7 and...
We all get computer viruses, eventually. There is nothing anyone can do, but whether it is a small inconvenience or a major computer-doesn’t-work-for-weeks issue is up to you.
It doesn’t matter which operating system you have. Viruses have been written for it. It is true that since 92% o...
It had to happen eventually. Regardless of how careful we all are, if we run MS-Windows-something, our PCs will get infected. One of my family members, who lives a few states away, got infected with at least 1 virus, probably a botnet and a keylogger too.
I’m working on a plan to deal with th...
Here’s a simple one question test for whether you have good backups or not.
Question: If any of your main hard disks started making a loud clicking sound right now does that idea freak you out or make you nervous?
If you have any answer beside, “No, bring it on” then your backups ar...
I like rdiff-backup to backup your HOME directories and Virtual Machines efficiently. Ok, that is a little understated, I LOVE rdiff-backup.
So, every 6 months or so, when it lets me down in some way, I have to recall all the good things that is actually does solve. Things like:
Efficient backup ...
Each of us use a computer for various reasons. Some just want a system that works, without any hassle. Most of us want to run specific software, work with specific file types, connect with everyone else, and possibly just do what the people around us are doing to be the same.
I’ll be as honest ...
I came across a short article on the Free Software Foundation building a federated social network solution and figured a few of my readers would be interested....
Maintaining a computer with all the patching and updating required these days is tough. It is almost impossible to keep everything patched on the most popular OS out there, even for nerds like us. For non-computer people, it is impossible. Often, software updates have costs to get the new version too...
Over the years, I’ve been using this blog to help myself remember how to do things and to share some great tools and techniques with you. I figure it is time to recap some of those articles whether they are computer, financial/retirement, or just interesting things....
You’ve heard it over and over. Backup, Backup, Backup. You are magically supposed to know how to do it and make it happen. This time, I’ll show exactly how I backup my HOME directory and manage those backups with rdiff-backup.
I’ve gone into why rdiff-backup was selected previous...
As I ponder how to build a redundant file server that serves Linux, Solaris, VMware, Xen, VirtualBox, FreeBSD, FreeNAS, TiVo and Windows systems, a few interesting articles have come to light.
A home file server using ZFS
Snapshots into the cloud
Backups with versioning
10 Reasons You need to Co...
Recently, I’ve been running IT for a small business. Backups and Disaster Recovery are critical for us AND our customers. With our background in enterprise solutions, we were limited in knowledge for low-end solutions that didn’t cost an arm AND a leg to implement. High end solutions fro...
