ALE / KSU-IEEE

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-   email lists - General, Jobs, Study http://ale.org/
-   IRC #ale on Freenode
-   Meetup.com - “ale linux atlanta” search
-   Weekly Sunday Meetings (NW - Smyrna)
-   Weekly Tuesday Meetings (SW - Fairburn)
-   Monthly Tueday Meetings (Decatur Makers)


Patch that sh/t and keep your piles on some other storage

Or ...
DESKTOP MAINTENANCE AND BACKUPS FOR LINUX DESKTOPS

Thanks for coming out!

Blog: blog.jdpfu.com
email: DJPfulio@jdpfu.com – JD (former rocket scientist)
We are 100% Volunteers.


Any Questions?

-   Any questions about the reading assignments?
    -   _Linux for Windows Users_
    -   _Linux is NOT Windows_
-   You've been using Linux for a week now.
-   Any Questions?


I'll make mistakes.

-   There are usually 50-500 different ways to solve anything
-   I will know a few, but definitely NOT all of them.
-   I’d guess I know about 10% of “Linux” after 24 yrs
-   At this level, have to provide guidelines and may loose 100%
    techincal accuracy


Linux for Windows Users

-   Linux for Windows Users
-   Most things are case-sensitive; programs should handle it, but some
    do not
-   Don't download, manage, install programs like Windows.
-   Use a Repo - from a reputable source
-   Best to avoid spaces/weird characters in file and directory names.
-   Never forget that all Unix-like OSes are multi-User
-   Weekly patching and Daily Backups


No GUI Stuff Here

POWER USERS

-   GUIs are slow.
-   GUIs cannot be easily automated. Inconsistent.
-   GUIs don't work on Servers. Why learn stuff twice?
-   No certifications for GUIs. There are for Servers.
-   The CLI/Shell is repeatable.
-   GUIs change every 2 yrs.


RTFM and Google Everything

-   No spoon feeding here.
-   Expect you can find answers yourself.
-   Hard part is asking the question in the Linux-way / Unix-way.
-   None of the software we discuss will be commercial (will be F/LOSS)
-   Paid software is a Microsoft and Apple thing, not so much on Linux.
-   Google-Fu: _ubuntu 16.04 {issue}_


Patching

-   Do it weekly.
-   Reputable distros will have something to patch at least that often.
-   Usually, no reboot is needed, but ... if there is a new
    kernel, reboot.
-   Rebooting is for Windows or new kernels (mostly).


Distro Releases Explained

-   Ubuntu LTS = 3 or 5 Years of Support
-   Debian "Stable" means ~2+ yrs of support
    -   Unstable - bleeding edge
    -   Testing - will be the next _stable_ ... eventually.
-   CentOS - follow RHEL support … in general, moving from 7.1 → 7.2 →
    7.3
    -   CentOS 7 - June 30, 2024
    -   CentOS 6 - 2020
-   Fedora - bleeding edge
    -   350-450 days of patches
    -   expected to move to the next release when available
    -   Redhat CEO uses Fedora 26


Weekly Patching - Debian/Ubuntu

-   Ubuntu
    -   $ sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade
    -   $ sudo apt update && sudo apt full-upgrade # replaces old
        packages
-   Debian
    -   $ sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade
    -   $ sudo apt update && sudo apt full-upgrade # replaces old
        packages
-   Can enable automatic security patches.
-   What might the downsides be?


Neomenclature

-   $ - normal userid
-   # - root userid
-   If I use terms you don't know - ASK


Weekly Patching - CentOS/Fedora

-   Fedora
    -   # dnf upgrade
-   CentOS/RHEL
    -   # dnf upgrade

-   Automatic Updates:
    -   dnf install dnf-automatic
    -   /etc/dnf/automatic.conf


Linux Logs – When Things Fail

-   Always check the log files.
-   In /var/log/* - text files.
-   sudo egrep -i 'error|warn' /var/log/*log
-   systemd uses binary logs, but today those are converted to text for
    backwards compatibility.


Backups

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-   Basic Skill
-   2 Types of backups
    -   Clone/mirror
    -   Versioned

-   Stored in 3 physical locations
-   Network and storage efficient
-   Encrypted
-   Automatic
-   Restore _must_ be tested. _Hope is not a plan._


Virtual Machine Backups

-   File → Export Appliance
-   This is a clone.
-   Very Inefficient.
    -   Storage waste
    -   Time waste
-   Only works with VMs
-   Need 2 things – the VM settings and the virtual hard disk.


Baby Physical Machine Backups

-   Works for virtual machines too.
-   Can clone using clonezilla, partimage, dd, ddrescue, fsarchiver.
-   Mirror files using rsync – 1 copy


Expert Physical Machine Backups

-   Automatic (if no GUI is uses via crontab)
-   Very efficient
-   30 days is 1.15x the original size – 10G → 15G for 30 days of daily
    backups
-   50 different solutions


Backups – What Needs to be Backed Up?

-   Data is NOT enough.
-   files, permissions, ownership, groups
-   Might want ACLs
-   System Settings - partitions, LVs, /etc/, ...
-   HOME
-   Any system-level data - /var/html/, /var/lib/Dbs…
-   Perhaps a list of installed Packages


Backups – Some Tools

-   GUIs
    -   Aptik
    -   Deja-Dup / Duplicati
-   Shell / CLI – can be automated
    -   Duplicity
    -   rsync (with hardlinks to get versioning)
    -   rdiff-backup
    -   50 others
-   Avoid ‘tar’ and similar tools for over 500MB of files
-   Be careful which file system is used for the backups.


Backups – An Example

     # rdiff-backup --exclude-special-files \
                      root@some-other-server:/ \
                      /Backups/some-other-server/

-   Put that into a script; chmod +x the script.
-   setup ssh between the backup-server and the client machines
    (always "PULL")
-   Run the script from a root crontab - 2am is a good time


Next Topic

-   Basic Unix Permissions


Every Saturday until mid-November

-   except Oct 14th and Nov 18th
-   10a until noon-ish
-   5 min break around 11a.


Feedback?

Email me or let your IEEE team know.