Hi! A friend just recommended the backup tool that comes with Ubuntu. I took a look at it and was wondering what you guys include and exclude from the backups. I just installed wire guard VPN and but the config file in the etc/wireguard folder, where it belongs. I would have to include this folder as well if I want to keep my configs. And I guess many programs do the same, so how do you know what to include, so you can just revert to the last backup if something breaks or you get a new machine? Maybe that is a stupid question, but it was going through my head for some time now. Thanks a lot!
I use config-as-code for some stuff but in reality there are many manual steps that aren’t covered. This is why I run an LVM mirror (RAID1) with two SSDs and I keep a full backup. The system hasn’t been reinstalled in 10 years.
If you feel the way you do, you should probably just do a full disk backup with clonezilla or dd every X days and be done with it. If X is large, e.g. months, you should also run home dir backup more often. The Ubuntu built-in tool is great for that. Then when something dies, restore the whole OS from the clonezilla/dd backup, boot, then restore the most recent home dir backup, reboot, and you’re back. Minimal effort.