Strictly speaking that sentence isn’t wrong, but backup system will also include several features (like bare metal restore) that aren’t going to be present in a file sync solution.
Nextcloud is great as a gdrive/Dropbox/OneDrive replacement since it’s job is to replicate a folder at the profile level - but it will struggle with large files due to its upload trigger that will fire basically as the file is created. Also, most OS level files and databases won’t be accessible to a process running under user-level permissions.
And while it’s not a requirement, typically backup systems use point in time snapshots of entire filesystems to ensure that databases are handled in a consistent manner, rather than the ad-hoc chances that Nextcloud will operate with. To note - a simplified backup solution like a cron-scheduled rsync will also be vulnerable to application file consistency issues for the same reason.
So if the only important data on your computer is your home folder, yes, you could back your system up with Nextcloud. But you may want to have a script or automation platform of some kind to restore the OS and programs of the system running said home folder. Full system backups are great at getting your entire computer back online exactly wherever it left off from the previous backup.
lemba@discuss.tchncs.de 1 year ago
Every Backup is a file synchronisation in the first place…
computergeek125@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Strictly speaking that sentence isn’t wrong, but backup system will also include several features (like bare metal restore) that aren’t going to be present in a file sync solution.
Nextcloud is great as a gdrive/Dropbox/OneDrive replacement since it’s job is to replicate a folder at the profile level - but it will struggle with large files due to its upload trigger that will fire basically as the file is created. Also, most OS level files and databases won’t be accessible to a process running under user-level permissions.
And while it’s not a requirement, typically backup systems use point in time snapshots of entire filesystems to ensure that databases are handled in a consistent manner, rather than the ad-hoc chances that Nextcloud will operate with. To note - a simplified backup solution like a cron-scheduled rsync will also be vulnerable to application file consistency issues for the same reason.
So if the only important data on your computer is your home folder, yes, you could back your system up with Nextcloud. But you may want to have a script or automation platform of some kind to restore the OS and programs of the system running said home folder. Full system backups are great at getting your entire computer back online exactly wherever it left off from the previous backup.