[Borgbackup] Multi-machine backup when there's some data overlap

[Oon-Ee Ng]

Noticed another issue related to this, I'm trying to replicate my rsync
setup where I ran some backups as root (/etc and similar) and others as my
own user (home directory). Both to the same repo.

This effectively meant I was trying to run a two-source backup, so lots of
rebuilding of cache involved. As I understand it, this means I have a few
choices:-
1. Accept the rebuilding time (it's kinda long for my data, so not likely)
2. Run everything as root
3. Have a separate repo for the user-backup

The issue with 2 is that I can only run borg list/info etc to check on my
data when logged in as root. This would be a partial issue with 3, since
that wouldn't apply for my own-user-backup (which is what's more
'important' subjectively anyway). Is my understanding correct?

On Wed, Oct 17, 2018 at 6:38 AM Oon-Ee Ng <ngoonee.talk at gmail.com> wrote:

> Thanks for that, but the loss of 3 and 4 is *probably* acceptable for this
> situation, as my backup location is a machine I control.
>
> On Tue, Oct 16, 2018 at 11:40 PM Marian Beermann <public at enkore.de> wrote:
>
>> And if you are using encryption you kinda need to trust the repo server
>> as well.
>>
>> See
>>
>> https://borgbackup.readthedocs.io/en/stable/internals/security.html#attack-model
>>
>> On 10/16/18 3:18 PM, Zack Coffey wrote:
>> > https://borgbackup.readthedocs.io/en/stable/faq.html
>> >
>> > That question is the very first answer in the FAQ.
>> >
>> > The answer is basically "yes, but..."
>> >
>> > Each machine is responsible for taking care of the whole repo as if it
>> > were it's own. So it needs to sync the whole thing, take care of
>> > everything and leave it all in a good state. Otherwise the next backup
>> > client is going to have trouble. Oh, and only 1 can run at a time.
>> >
>> > If all of those are not a concern and dedupe is a higher priority, then
>> > yes they can all backup to 1 repo. Otherwise, individual repos is wiser.
>> >
>> > On Tue, Oct 16, 2018 at 1:14 AM Oon-Ee Ng <ngoonee.talk at gmail.com
>> > <mailto:ngoonee.talk at gmail.com>> wrote:
>> >
>> >     Apologies in advance if I get terminology wrong, I've used rsnapshot
>> >     for a decade or more and am only now looking to upgrade my backup
>> >     process.
>> >
>> >     Having said that, what's the best way to approach multi-machine
>> >     backup? Obviously the most straightforward way is to initialize at
>> >     least one borg backup per machine. However if I read that correctly
>> >     this will create isolated repositories, which cannot take advantage
>> >     of any data overlap.
>> >
>> >     Just to avoid this being an XY problem, my core use case is having
>> >     multiple computers (Linux and Windows via cygwin) backing up to a
>> >     single backup host using borgbackup. Some of these machines have
>> >     duplicated data (especially in terms of photos/videos, since these
>> >     are personal/family machines), so there should be significant space
>> >     savings from being keeping them in one repository, if that is at all
>> >     possible.
>> >
>> >     Thanks in advace!
>> >     _______________________________________________
>> >     Borgbackup mailing list
>> >     Borgbackup at python.org <mailto:Borgbackup at python.org>
>> >     https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/borgbackup
>> >
>> >
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>> >
>>
>>
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