Backups and Restoring Data with tar M5

Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)

requires healthcare providers to keep records for six years.

A backup is

a saved version of specific files in a drive or network folder at a given point in time.

System administrators backup data

so organizations can quickly recover lost assets and restore systems.

why are back ups important

• A backup saves specified files on your system and copies them to a safe secondary place.

• Backups are generally completed hourly or daily.

• Performing regular backups is a top priority for organizations

Different Types of Backups

Full, Differential, Incremental

Full Backup

More reliable and offers complete restoration but requires large storage space

Differential backup

Captures all of the changes made since that initial backup

Incremental Backup

Captures only the changes made since the last backup, whether it was a full, differential, or incremental backup

The tar (tape archive) command

is a Linux utility that system administrators use to create a backup.

An archive

is a special file that contains a concatenation of files and directories

cvf in linux

c stands for create

v stands for verbose

f indicates the title of the archive

gzip in linux

is a command used to create a compressed tar archive, indicated with a tar.gz extension.

• gzip compression is useful when disk space is an issue

• Moving files requires less bandwidth, faster transfer times

czvf

cz creates the file and compresses it using gzip.

xzvf

-xz extracts the file and decompresses it using gzip.

A checkpoint

is an action assigned to take place at a specific stage of a backup or restoration

A cronjob

is a script or command designated to run at regular or periodic, predetermined intervals.

The cron in cronjob

refers to a system daemon that keeps track of when to run scheduled tasks.

• cron is most suitable for scheduling repetitive tasks.

A daemon

is a computer program that runs as a background process, rather than being under the direct control of an interactive user.

cron is a robust task scheduler daemon that

allows users to schedule repetitive tasks to run on a regular basis.

Tasks are stored and scheduled in a file called a

crontab (cron table).

cronjobs run

under the same permissions as the user who creates them.

• A cronjob created by user root will run with root privileges.

cron in linux

is useful for managing single function tasks

cron ideal for backing up

a single directory: ex /home

but is

Not ideal for multiple directories: ex /home/user1, /home/user2

/home/user2