Ubuntu – what is the default location for backup files of another server

backupfiles

I have an Ubuntu Server and one of its "tasks" is to mirror/backup files located on another server in a different location using rsync/rdiff-backup.

I know there are some conventions like web pages go in /var/www.

What is the best-practice/default location for storing the backup files?

Possible places I considered:

/var/backup – looks like it is used for internal backups of the OS

/home/backup – I could create this directory, but if maintaining backups is a "service" this server provides, I feel it is wrong to put the files in the same folder with personal user files

PS I am aware this question might be subjective (I got the warning tooltip), but I think what I do is quite common, and there has to be a convention.

Best Answer

There is a proper location.

There is a standard for proper filesystem structure. Its current version has been around for over a decade, which might be news to some Linux distros.

The latest version of the Filesystem Hierarchy Standard is 2.3: http://www.pathname.com/fhs/pub/fhs-2.3.html

There, under the "Purpose" section of var, it explains why that's a bad idea to use /var/backups:

Several directories are `reserved' in the sense that they must not be used arbitrarily by some new application, since they would conflict with historical and/or local practice. They are:

/var/backups
/var/cron
/var/msgs
/var/preserve

The proper place would be, dependent on the application and its usage, something like:

/var/lib/<app>/backups
/var/local/<app>/backups
/var/opt/<app>/backups

(I say "something like" because whether you use /var/lib, /var/local, or /var/opt is dependent on the application, its role within the system, and how it was installed. Also, the structure under /var/lib/<app> is arbitrary based on the application maintainers.)

By the way, since you mentioned it, /var/www is not the proper place for served web pages (again, this is news to some distro and package maintainers, but the FHS is older that many of them who clearly never have read it). Served content, and stored application data/assets for services belong under the /srv directory. I have been using the protocol method since 2005 and find it works quite well (/srv/http, /srv/ftp, /srv/git, /srv/svn, etc.).

Let's say that that you are using rsync and that this machine is providing a backup service for the network, you would use:

/srv/rsync/backups

UPDATE

Version 3.0 of FHS: https://refspecs.linuxfoundation.org/FHS_3.0/fhs/index.html

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