Yeah another post about backups, but hear me out.

I read most of the other post here on lemmy, read through the documentation from different backup tools (rsync, Borg, timeshift) but all those backup tools are for “static” files.

I mean I have a few docker container with databases, syncthing to sync files between server, Android, Desktop and Mac, a few samba shares between Server, Mac and Desktop.

Per say on Borg’s documentation:

• Avoid running any programs that might change the files.
• Snapshot files, filesystems, container storage volumes, or logical volumes. LVM or ZFS might be useful here.
• Dump databases or stop the database servers.
• Shut down virtual machines before backing up their images.
• Shut down containers before backing up their storage volumes.

How I’m supposed to make a complete automated backup of my system if my files are constantly changing ? If I have to stop my containers, shutdown syncthing and my samba shares to make a full backup, that seams a bit to much of friction and prone to errors…

Also, nowhere I could find any mention on how to restore a full backup with a LVM partition system on a new installed system. (User creation, filesystem partition…)

Maybe, I have a bad understanding on how It works with linux files but doing a full backup this way feels unreliable and prone to corrupted files and backup on a server.

VMs are easier to rollback with snapshots and could’t find a similar way on a bare metal server…

I hope anyone could point me to the right direction, because right now I have the feeling I can only backup my compose-files and do a full installation and reconfiguration, which is supposed to be the work of a backup… Not having to reconfigure everything !

Thanks