Re: [gentoo-user] LVM, crypto, and backup

On Sun, 2007-12-16 at 11:52 -0800, felix@crowfix.com wrote:
> I want to set up two portable 1TB drives so users have their own LVM
> partitions to mount as crypto drives. These partitions would have to
> be mounted manually with the passpharse supplied by each user (this is
> a family setup, just a few users). But I want the system to be able
> to backup one 1TB drive to the other for offline backup.
>
> 1. What crypto system to use?
>
> 2. I have planned this with each user having their own LVM partition,
> but would it be possible to use one passphrase and make the entire
> drive crypto, then run LVM on top of that? This is a curiousity
> question more than anything. It might be handy for a system disk
> someday, but not now.
>
> 3. What is the right way to backup one 1TB drive to the other? dd
> would probably work, but that sounds rather crude, not to mention
> it would have to copy the entire 1TB over USB. It would be a lot
> faster to only backup what is needed. I want to backup partitions
> automatically once a week, without knowing the passphrase or
> requiring the partitions to be mounted. If each LVM partition is
> only expanded as necessary, unused space in each partition would
> be kept to a minimum. Or is it possible for the backup to only
> backup as much of each partition as is used, without knowing the
> passphrase or having it mounted? I suspect not, but I don't know.
>

I would probably use encfs, forget about the one-lvm-per-user complexity, and just back up the encrypted filesystem just like any other fs.

--
Albert W. Hopkins

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