Mondo Rescue is an excellent backup for Linux based boxes. With Debian, it is a one line install:
apt-get install mondo
As the existing partitions on the machine I needed to backup did not have enough space
for the backup archive, I used LVM to create another partition out of spare drive space,
created a jounalled ext3 filesystem,
mounted in a directory I created for Mondo backups, and then started the archive program.
mkdir /var/backups/mondo/src
mkdir /var/backups/mondo/dst
lvcreate --size 20G --name lvBackup vg01
mke2fs -v -j /dev/vg01/lvBackup
mount /dev/mapper/vg01-lvBackup /var/backups/mondo/dst
mondoarchive
As this is a quick and dirty backup, just to get things backed up, in the archive program I
selected '/' as the root of the backup, and excluded /var/backups/mondo so that backup
related stuff isn't re-archived.
As part of the backup process, an image of /root/images/mindi/mondorescue.iso should be
made to a CD. This will be used in the initial part of the restore process.
One more trick having to do with the LVM (Logical File Manager) has to do with snapshots.
Since databases are typically being updated during the backup, the backup process will have
obtained files in an inconsistent state. Use LVM to make a snapshot, use Mondo to backup
the snapshot, and then use LVM to delete the snapshot.
lvcreate --size 500M --name lvBackupSource --snapshot /dev/vg01/lvVar
mount /dev/mapper/vg01-lvBackupSource /var/backups/mondo/src
mondoarchive
umount /var/backups/mondo/src
lvremove /dev/vg01/lvBackupSource
For the size parameter in the lvcreate command, use a size that will readily accomodate
any changes made to the primary partition during the backup phase.