Timeline for Backup tool for pulling files out of encrypted disks?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
11 events
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| Jul 21, 2020 at 17:01 | vote | accept | david | ||
| Jul 21, 2020 at 16:56 | comment | added | david |
@PhilipCouling: If you had a Linux system and just copied all the files to a backup drive using cryptsetup luksOpen ... and rsync ... - would this be 100% safe and sufficient to recreate the complete Linux system, including e.g. all security settings, network configurations (proxies, VPNs), user/group policies etc.?
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| Jul 21, 2020 at 12:12 | answer | added | Philip Couling | timeline score: 1 | |
| Jul 21, 2020 at 11:38 | comment | added | Philip Couling |
No these things aren't generally contained in the file system. The one exception is the boot loader on a system using EFI instead of legacy boot. That's stored as files in /boot/efi/EFI (on the EFI partition). Typically those are less necessary though as you can usually get back to a working system without them.
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| Jul 21, 2020 at 11:32 | comment | added | david |
@PhilipCouling: Thanks a lot for this bit! I'm looking into rsync... Is it possible to use rsync to reproduce the entire disk incl. bootloader, partition structure etc.? I.e., if rsync operates on a file system, are these information (bootloader, partition tables etc.) accessible as "files"?
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| Jul 21, 2020 at 11:25 | comment | added | Philip Couling |
I'd recommend learning how to use rsync to copy files. The fact that your disk is encrypted is largely irrelevant. Whatever you use will need it to be opened (cryptsetup luksOpen ...) before operation. Then all you're really asking for is a backup tool which operates on a file system rather than the block device. Thus I'd suggest rsync as a command line tool which is well designed for copying file trees.
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| Jul 21, 2020 at 11:17 | comment | added | david | Is it, for instance, possible to write a Bash script that somehow uses LUKS, prompts for the encryption key, decrypts the disk, then (ideally hot-)transfers all files to a backup drive, and encrypts the backup? Imagine - having a small script like this would be enormously handy. And if the partition structure is reproduced, the backup would even be bootable, i.e. you could just snapshot your entire system onto an external SSD, take it somewhere, and work from it on any host computer. You could carry around your entire (encrypted) workstation! | |
| Jul 21, 2020 at 11:12 | comment | added | david | Example: 500 GB disk, 10 GB data. Copy only files => 10 GB backup. Clone bit by bit => 500 GB backup with 490 GB wasted space | |
| Jul 21, 2020 at 11:11 | comment | added | david |
Hi, I mean leaving out unused space by being file system-aware and copying file by file (what cp does), rather than bit by bit (what dd does)
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| Jul 20, 2020 at 22:20 | comment | added | Philip Couling | Could you expand on what you mean by "dropping free blocks". | |
| Jul 20, 2020 at 19:32 | history | asked | david | CC BY-SA 4.0 |