RHEL 10 Backup Procedure & Strategy — Complete Course

A comprehensive, zero-to-advanced course on backup procedures, strategies, and tools for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 systems. Each module builds on the previous, progressing from theory through hands-on implementation to enterprise-grade deployment.

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Table of Contents

• Prerequisites
• Course Structure
• Recommended Learning Paths
• Lab Environment Setup
• Conventions Used in This Course
• Tools Covered
• Key Concepts Quick Reference
• License

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Prerequisites

Requirement	Detail
OS	RHEL 10 (or compatible: AlmaLinux 10, Rocky Linux 10)
Access	Root or sudo privileges
Networking	Two machines recommended for client/server labs (VMs acceptable)
Storage	A second disk or LVM volume for practice (/dev/sdb used throughout)
Packages	dnf access (local mirror or internet)

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Course Structure

Module	File	Topic	Level
00	00-introduction.md	Backup Theory & Fundamentals	Beginner
01	01-rhel10-filesystem.md	RHEL 10 Filesystem & What to Back Up	Beginner
02	02-tar.md	tar — Archives, Compression & Incrementals	Beginner–Intermediate
03	03-rsync.md	rsync — Local/Remote Sync & Snapshot-Style Incrementals	Intermediate
04	04-dump-restore.md	dump / xfsdump — Filesystem-Level Backup	Intermediate
05	05-lvm-snapshots.md	LVM Snapshots — Consistent Pre-Backup Freezes	Intermediate
06	06-restic.md	Restic — Modern Deduplicated Encrypted Backups	Intermediate–Advanced
07	07-bareos.md	Bareos — Enterprise Backup (Full Install & Deep Configuration)	Advanced
08	08-amanda.md	Amanda — Network Backup Server	Advanced
09	09-strategy-automation.md	Backup Strategy and Automation	Intermediate–Advanced
10	10-restore-testing.md	Restore Testing and Disaster Recovery Drills	All Levels
11	11-security-compliance.md	Backup Security and Compliance	Advanced
12	12-capstone-lab.md	Capstone Lab: Full Disaster Recovery Scenario	Advanced

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Recommended Learning Paths

Path A — New to Backups

Follow modules in order: 00 → 01 → 02 → 03 → 09 → 10

Path B — Intermediate Sysadmin

00 → 01 → 03 → 05 → 06 → 09 → 10 → 11

Path C — Enterprise / Production Focus

00 → 01 → 05 → 07 → 09 → 10 → 11 → 12

Path D — Full Course (Zero to Advanced)

00 → 01 → 02 → 03 → 04 → 05 → 06 → 07 → 08 → 09 → 10 → 11 → 12

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Lab Environment Setup

All labs use a consistent test environment. Set this up before starting Module 02.

Minimum setup (single machine)

# Create a second VG and LV for practice
# Assumes /dev/sdb is available (add a 20GB disk to your VM)
sudo pvcreate /dev/sdb
sudo vgcreate backupvg /dev/sdb
sudo lvcreate -L 10G -n datalv backupvg
sudo mkfs.xfs /dev/backupvg/datalv
sudo mkdir -p /data
sudo mount /dev/backupvg/datalv /data

# Create a backup destination volume
sudo lvcreate -L 8G -n backuplv backupvg
sudo mkfs.xfs /dev/backupvg/backuplv
sudo mkdir -p /backup
sudo mount /dev/backupvg/backuplv /backup

# Populate /data with test content
sudo mkdir -p /data/{configs,logs,documents,databases}
sudo cp -r /etc/. /data/configs/
sudo dd if=/dev/urandom bs=1M count=50 | sudo tee /data/documents/testfile.bin > /dev/null
echo "Lab environment ready."

Recommended: two-machine setup

Role	Hostname	IP Example
Backup Server	backup-server	192.168.100.10
Client Machine	backup-client	192.168.100.20

Add these to /etc/hosts on both machines:

192.168.100.10  backup-server
192.168.100.20  backup-client

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Conventions Used in This Course

• # prompt = command runs as root
• $ prompt = command runs as regular user
• [server]# = run on backup-server
• [client]# = run on backup-client
• Config blocks show every directive with inline comments (# explanation)
• Each module ends with Lab Exercises and Review Questions
• Answers to Review Questions are provided at the bottom of each module

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Tools Covered

Tool	Type	Use Case
tar	Archive	Simple file/directory archives, incrementals
rsync	Sync	Efficient local/remote sync, snapshot-style incrementals
dump / xfsdump	Filesystem	Level-based filesystem dumps (XFS native)
LVM Snapshots	Block	Crash-consistent point-in-time snapshots
Restic	Dedup+Encrypt	Modern, encrypted, deduplicated backups to any backend
Bareos	Enterprise	Full client/server backup with catalog, scheduling, pools
Amanda	Enterprise	Network backup server with tape/disk VTL support

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Key Concepts Quick Reference

Term	Definition
RPO	Recovery Point Objective — maximum acceptable data loss (time)
RTO	Recovery Time Objective — maximum acceptable downtime
Full Backup	Complete copy of all selected data
Incremental	Only changes since the last backup (of any kind)
Differential	Only changes since the last full backup
3-2-1 Rule	3 copies, 2 media types, 1 offsite
Deduplication	Storing identical data blocks only once
Retention Policy	Rules defining how long backups are kept
Catalog	Database of backup metadata (what was backed up, when, where)

License

This project is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/

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Course version: 1.0 — RHEL 10 — February 2026 — All 13 modules complete

© 2026 UncleJS — Licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0