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I have 6.8TB of Media I would like to backup. I have an extra external hard drive 7.3TB. Is there a way to make a space efficient incremental backup? I will be adding media and would like to be able to create a weekly backup of this.

Will it be a smaller backup if I just duplicity? Create an image? Mind you the 6.8TB is part of a 13TB Vg. I just want to be able to check for changes, if there are changes to make a backup, remove the previous backup, and do it on a weekly basis.

I would also like to be able to restore from this if I have any HDD failures. Would a LVM snapshot be able to handle this?

Thank you in advance for any assistance or advice.

Mostafa Ahangarha
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thatoneguy99
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  • Media is typically in a compressed form I don't think you'll find a way to get it to take less space than it does without re-encoding with better compression (for instance x265 instead of x264) but the results will vary depending on the content in question. There are numerous backup tools – Elder Geek Feb 08 '17 at 20:21
  • In general will I be able to restore an entire hard drive from an LVM snapshot? Do LVM snapshots take up the same size as the content? – thatoneguy99 Feb 08 '17 at 20:32
  • A snapshot will require as much storage space as changes are made to the contents in the logical volume. See this – Elder Geek Feb 08 '17 at 20:38
  • I saw that but I was unsure about the initial snapshot. – thatoneguy99 Feb 08 '17 at 20:50
  • Since a changed system requires as much space as the changes made I would expect the original to require as much space as the data you are backing up. I'll see if I can find anything on LVM snapshot overhead but I doubt there's much waste or any savings. – Elder Geek Feb 08 '17 at 20:55
  • It looks like there is some waste and some danger involved if enough storage isn't reserved for the snapshot(s). Personally, I like rsync and dd depending on the desired outcome. I learn something new every day... – Elder Geek Feb 08 '17 at 21:01
  • I guess I am trying to do magic. Just trying to make a restorable backup that doesn't take up as much space as what it is backing up. Like an oximoron or something. Can you use dd to create an image of a LV? Images are smaller right? – thatoneguy99 Feb 08 '17 at 21:13
  • No, sorry there's no way you'll be fitting 10 lbs. of potatoes in a 5 lb. sack. dd is for full disks and partitions not for LV's IMHO LV's are great when you need to expand them and aren't the rest of the time.. The only thing you can do with media to reduce storage space is to re-encode with a higher compression codec. – Elder Geek Feb 08 '17 at 21:19
  • Although this says something of interest and here's a cautionary tale – Elder Geek Feb 08 '17 at 21:20

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