Is there any System restore point kind of thing available in Linux ?
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Hello there,
I am just wondering to know if there is any System Restore Point kind of things available in Linux (lets say CentOS) ?
I find this option to be very useful from my experience while working with Windows systems and curious to know if it's available for Linux to utilize it.
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TimeShift is the go to solution for this.
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@DustinB3403 said in Is there any System restore point kind of thing available in Linux ?:
TimeShift is the go to solution for this.
Seems TimeShift is for Ubuntu or Debian variant.
How about CentOS ?
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You can do LVM snapshots, backintime, rsnapshot, timeshift, dejadup, rdiff-backup, etc.
I've had some pretty good use with rsnapshot. Anything that doesn't change is hard linked so it looks like it does a full backup each time, but it's only using disk space for changes.
I've used backintime also but that seems to be a little more resource heavy.
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Plates mentions one way. Another is just snapshotting from the hypervisor. System Restore Point pre-dates widespread hypervisor level management of these things. It's a good technology and I am glad that Microsoft keeps it around, but it's no longer the only tool for this in the Windows world, either.
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@scottalanmiller this assumes that this system is a VM. I know it's a safe assumption, but we should avoid assuming.
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@DustinB3403 said in Is there any System restore point kind of thing available in Linux ?:
@scottalanmiller this assumes that this system is a VM. I know it's a safe assumption, but we should avoid assuming.
All restore mechanisms have some assumption in them. VM, LVM, Rsync... something installed and running ahead of time.
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@scottalanmiller Yes, but you can't make the assumption that this system is running upon.
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Patching on Linux tends to be very different from that on Windows. As individual packages can be rolled back easily the idea of a system restore is uncommon. Look at CentOS with RPM, RPM alone generally handles everything that you need without an additional tool. Windows doesn't really do that with their patches.
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@scottalanmiller said in Is there any System restore point kind of thing available in Linux ?:
Plates mentions one way. Another is just snapshotting from the hypervisor. System Restore Point pre-dates widespread hypervisor level management of these things. It's a good technology and I am glad that Microsoft keeps it around, but it's no longer the only tool for this in the Windows world, either.
Ya sorry, I just assumed that was a known thing.
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@Reid-Cooper said in Is there any System restore point kind of thing available in Linux ?:
Patching on Linux tends to be very different from that on Windows. As individual packages can be rolled back easily the idea of a system restore is uncommon. Look at CentOS with RPM, RPM alone generally handles everything that you need without an additional tool. Windows doesn't really do that with their patches.
Ah I just assumed this was for data.
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@stacksofplates said in Is there any System restore point kind of thing available in Linux ?:
You can do LVM snapshots, backintime, rsnapshot, timeshift, dejadup, rdiff-backup, etc.
I've had some pretty good use with rsnapshot. Anything that doesn't change is hard linked so it looks like it does a full backup each time, but it's only using disk space for changes.
I've used backintime also but that seems to be a little more resource heavy.
I am not looking for backup things. And to be more specific, I am looking for Restore Point for CentOS Operating System, I might have specified in Title.
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@scottalanmiller said in Is there any System restore point kind of thing available in Linux ?:
Plates mentions one way. Another is just snapshotting from the hypervisor. System Restore Point pre-dates widespread hypervisor level management of these things. It's a good technology and I am glad that Microsoft keeps it around, but it's no longer the only tool for this in the Windows world, either.
I understand about snapshot option available for VMs, but here I am looking for physical (or within OS).
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@mobeen said in Is there any System restore point kind of thing available in Linux ?:
@stacksofplates said in Is there any System restore point kind of thing available in Linux ?:
You can do LVM snapshots, backintime, rsnapshot, timeshift, dejadup, rdiff-backup, etc.
I've had some pretty good use with rsnapshot. Anything that doesn't change is hard linked so it looks like it does a full backup each time, but it's only using disk space for changes.
I've used backintime also but that seems to be a little more resource heavy.
I am not looking for backup things. And to be more specific, I am looking for Restore Point for CentOS Operating System, I might have specified in Title.
Right, but a restore point is a form of backup, just one that is not on separate media normally so technically it is not a backup, but it is a form of backup. Just a local one that fails with the original. If you stored your restore point on other media, it would indeed be a backup.
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@mobeen said in Is there any System restore point kind of thing available in Linux ?:
@scottalanmiller said in Is there any System restore point kind of thing available in Linux ?:
Plates mentions one way. Another is just snapshotting from the hypervisor. System Restore Point pre-dates widespread hypervisor level management of these things. It's a good technology and I am glad that Microsoft keeps it around, but it's no longer the only tool for this in the Windows world, either.
I understand about snapshot option available for VMs, but here I am looking for physical (or within OS).
Well you should fix that rather than working around it. But even on physical, LVM is the tool for the job. Windows got this from Linux, not the other way around
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@scottalanmiller said in Is there any System restore point kind of thing available in Linux ?:
@mobeen said in Is there any System restore point kind of thing available in Linux ?:
@stacksofplates said in Is there any System restore point kind of thing available in Linux ?:
You can do LVM snapshots, backintime, rsnapshot, timeshift, dejadup, rdiff-backup, etc.
I've had some pretty good use with rsnapshot. Anything that doesn't change is hard linked so it looks like it does a full backup each time, but it's only using disk space for changes.
I've used backintime also but that seems to be a little more resource heavy.
I am not looking for backup things. And to be more specific, I am looking for Restore Point for CentOS Operating System, I might have specified in Title.
Right, but a restore point is a form of backup, just one that is not on separate media normally so technically it is not a backup, but it is a form of backup. Just a local one that fails with the original. If you stored your restore point on other media, it would indeed be a backup.
I understand, it's not actual backup because it's local.
I believe, with LVM snapshots, it seems, it will take snap/backup of system settings and data ? whereas in Windows it will take snapshot of System Settings only and consumes less space, time and even faster restore.
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@mobeen said in Is there any System restore point kind of thing available in Linux ?:
I believe, with LVM snapshots, it seems, it will take snap/backup of system settings and data ?
That depends. On Windows they do some setup for you under the hood. On Linux you have to do this manually. However, it's standard practice so most people don't need to do it manually.
You simply keep your data on a different logical volume than your system. For example, I commonly have a /data filesystem just for data. You only then snap your other volume(s), not the data volume. Then you can roll back without impacting the data, same as on Windows.
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@mobeen said in Is there any System restore point kind of thing available in Linux ?:
whereas in Windows it will take snapshot of System Settings only and consumes less space, time and even faster restore.
Generally that is not the case. Space, time and restore time can easily be the same. That more is snapped does not imply that those other things will change.
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@scottalanmiller said in Is there any System restore point kind of thing available in Linux ?:
@mobeen said in Is there any System restore point kind of thing available in Linux ?:
@scottalanmiller said in Is there any System restore point kind of thing available in Linux ?:
Plates mentions one way. Another is just snapshotting from the hypervisor. System Restore Point pre-dates widespread hypervisor level management of these things. It's a good technology and I am glad that Microsoft keeps it around, but it's no longer the only tool for this in the Windows world, either.
I understand about snapshot option available for VMs, but here I am looking for physical (or within OS).
Well you should fix that rather than working around it. But even on physical, LVM is the tool for the job. Windows got this from Linux, not the other way around
If you are suggesting LVM snapshot for CentOS, I don't know exact prerequisite to able to use LVM snapshot (may partition should be someway ?)
And I have gone through article about how to use LVM Snapshot Take snapshot and restore with LVM which seems to big process than Windows
I was looking for easy or GUI based option, and I think it's available for Ubuntu ?
And the main reason I want this kind of feature is to do experiments or nailing into linux more and restore if something went wrong
which may help in production systems also in future. -
@mobeen said in Is there any System restore point kind of thing available in Linux ?:
If you are suggesting LVM snapshot for CentOS, I don't know exact prerequisite to able to use LVM snapshot (may partition should be someway ?)
Only requirement is that you have LVM, which is considered a best practice and basic deployment step for any Linux, even in a VM where it is mostly redundant, but certainly any physical install would need it.
