Backing up to a remote host

Storing backup archives locally on the same machine will not protect you from hardware failure or malicious attack. When the machine goes down, backups will go down with it. For this reason, backups should be stored remotely on another server.

The easiest way to back up to a remote host is to use a network file sharing protocol such as NFS or CIFS. You start by creating a network volume on the remote server and then mount the volume on your server. Now, you can back up to the files on the remote system just as easily as if they were stored locally. Take a look at Chapter 6, Managing Files on Your System, for instructions on setting up network file sharing using NFS or CIFS.

If you have only SSH access to the remote host or want to back up to a remote magnetic tape device, you can follow the steps outlined in this recipe. We'll demonstrate how Webmin helps you set up either tar or dump to create remote backups over SSH.

Getting ready

The root user of our server will...