Network backup
You will need to be on a wired connection for this to work
How to Backup (step by step)
On the old machine/drive run the following commands in the terminal. All these commands will need to be run as root (via sudo).
cp /etc/passwd /etc/shadow /etc/group /home/ dpkg --get-selections > /home/dpkg.out tar -czf /etc/ /home/etc.backup.tar.gz rsync -avzh /home/ tsbackup@tsbackup:/var/tsbackup/[date-ticketnumber] 2>rsync.log
This should back up enough to create an effective clone of the old machine.
N.B. Use ISO (reverse) format for the date (e.g. 20121223 for Dec 23 2012) not American date format. Failing to do so may result in files being accidentally deleted. Always rsync the entire home directory even if there is only one user otherwise files and users may not be restored correctly. Errors are logged in the file rsync.log.
How to Restore (step by step)
On the new machine/drive run the following commands in the terminal All these commands will need to be run as root (via sudo).
sudo rsync -avzh tsbackup@tsbackup:/var/tsbackup/[date-ticketnumber]/ /home cp /home/passwd /home/shadow /home/group /etc/ dpkg --set-selections < /home/dpkg.out apt-get -u dselect-upgrade
Reference Only
The sections below are included for reference only, please consider the above procedure definitive.
Backup and Restore Users
You can accomplish this by copying over /etc/passwd /etc/shadow (the encrypted password file) and /etc/group form the old to new machine. It can be good practice to at least backup the whole /etc directory however this is more important with servers. You would also need to worry about things like /var/www in that case as well but its beyond the scope of what we do. The best practice is to keep the drive around for the users to check
Backup and Restore Installed Packages
You can also backup a list that has the users installed packages so you can reinstall them.
dpkg --get-selections > dpkg.out
(don't forget to copy this file over)
Then when you have installed a new system/replace the box etc, you can do:
dpkg --set-selections < dpkg.out
then
apt-get -u dselect-upgrade
on the new box, to install the same set of packages as before. (You can actually do this over a network, from one box to another, using ssh but I will leave that as an exercise for the reader).
Backup and Restore User Data
To backup the home folder(s) over the network using rsync (as root).
rsync -avzh /home/ tsbackup@tsbackup:/var/tsbackup/[date-ticketnumber] 2>rsync.out
N.B. Use ISO (reverse) format for the date (e.g. 20121223 for Dec 23 2012) not American date format. Failing to do so may result in files being accidentally deleted. Always rsync the entire home directory even if there is only one user otherwise files and users may not be restored correctly.
errors will be logged to file rsync.out
To copy it back again:
sudo rsync -avzh tsbackup@tsbackup:/var/tsbackup/[date-ticketnumber]/ /home
N.B. The trailing slash on the source (first part) is important in rsync. A trailing slash means copy the contents of this folder without creating the folder itself. If you are uncertain about anything you can test it using the -n option. This will do a dry run and nothing will actually be copied over. It is a good habit to do a sanity check first with rsync; it is an immensely powerful tool and you want to make sure it is going to do what you think it is.
Rysnc is a more efficient protocol to use than scp. It will ensure file permissions and ownerships are preserved and will compress data on the fly to make for a faster transfer. (it will also only copy the needed files so if you add files, then you can run the command again and rsync will only copy the additional files. You can also remove files and use the --delete option and it will remove the files on the remote host).
If you don't want to copy hidden files add --exclude=".*/" as an option. Its a good idea to at least copy over users .mozilla files, and any .evolution or .thunderbird folders as a minimum. It shouldn't cause too many problems copying over all hidden files.
Backup and Restore User's Desktop Background
You can also restore the user's desktop background (as long as you have the file backed up as well. To check run the command without >desktop.pict).
gconftool-2 --get /desktop/gnome/background/picture_filename >desktop.pict
copy over desktop.pict and on the new machine
gconftool-2 --type string --set /desktop/gnome/background/picture_filename "$(cat desktop.pict)"
N.B. copying over a users home folder wholesale with all the hidden files and folders will do this anyway.
Recreating User Accounts and Restoring Permissions
If you have reinstalled and the user had accounts other then oem you will still need to recreate those user accounts:
adduser [username]
You might need to change the ownership to match that of the user if find the ownership and groups had change to a numeric value (check using ls -lh).
find /home/username/ -type f -exec chown -R username.username {} \;
or just
chown -R username.username /home/username/
You might also need to apply proper permissions. This step should be unnecessary with rsync as it will preserve permissions.
find /home/username/ -type f -exec chmod 644 {} \;
find /home/username/ -type d -exec chmod 754 {} \;
or for move private users
find ./ -type f -exec chmod 640 {} \;
find ./ -type d -exec chmod 750 {} \;
When you are finished with a backup and sure that all the data is properly transfered remove it from tsbackup. Once you have ensured ('tested') that the machine works and the data is all there.
rm -r /var/tsbackup/[date-ticketnumber]