If you plan to do a backup on a regular basis, you won’t be able to circumvent the command line anyway. This is usually done via a cronjob and is a pretty cool solution.

Here’s my crontab:

# m h dom mon dow command
0 3 1 * * /usr/sbin/mondoarchive -Oi -S /tmp -T /tmp -I "/" -E "/data /Backup" -d /Backup/mondo -7 -s 4480m >/dev/null 2>&1

Now the explanation of the command line:

• -Ox
  This is what it always starts with. The “-O” tells mondoarchive to perform a backup, the “-V” switch would tell instead mondoarchive to verify an already existing backup. You can invoke this switches also together.

-Ox	meaning	storage location
-Or	backup to DVD-R.	Important: -d must contain a SCSI node: e.g. 4,0,0
-Oi	backup to an ISO file.	-d have to be a valid (existing) path with enough space left for the generated ISO images.
-On	backups onto a NFS share.	-d must be a valid mount point. e.g. 192.168.178.1:/backup
-Oc 32	Backup to a CD-R using 32x speed	use for -d must name a SCSI device node
-Ow 8	Backup to a CD-RW (rewritable). using e.g. 8x writing speed	use for -d must name a SCSI device node
-Ot	backup to tape	e.g. -d /dev/st0

• -S /tmp/
  Tell mondo where to store its temporary ISO files, it’s also called scratch dir.
  This is also the part, that fails using the UI.
  If you want have at least a graphical progress indicator of your backup you can invoke the ‘-g‘ switch.

  mondoarchive -Oi -S /tmp/ -T /tmp/ -d /tmp -g
  

  

• -T /tmp/
  Here all non ISO data goes to.
• -I "/"
  You can explicitly name a include directory or a whole device (e.g. /dev/sda1). Use quotation marks and embrace all your paths separated by a white space.
• -E "/data Backup"
  You can explicitly name a exclude directory or a whole device (e.g. /dev/sda1). Use quotation marks and embrace all your paths separated by a white space.
• -7
  Define here the compression level. Default value is “3” (light compression). It’s always a compromise of speed and size. Find for yourself the best mix.
• -s 4480m
  Tell mondo who big your ISO images should get. Usually 700m for a CD-R(W) and 4480m for a DVD-R(W).

The example in my crontab writes ISO images to my hard disk drive. You might think now, that this is probably not the best idea if the whole server crashes. And there’s maybe no change to access those images anymore.
That’s why here goes my very personal recommendation.
Burn your first mondo images directly to DVD-R(W) or CD-R(W), and the ISO images which are created on the first of every month (in my cronjob above) should reside on a non system hard disk drive. Preferably it should be the second or third hard disk. And once in a while if you’re in a good temper, you might also consider to burn those images to a DVD-R, too 😉

I’ve created my first images like this:

mondoarchive -Or -S /tmp -T /tmp -I "/" -E "/data /Backup" -d 4,0,0 -7 -s 4480m

If you don’t know your device done for your DVD/CD-ROM device, perform a

dmesg | grep -i dvd

In my case I’ve got two DVD-R devices attached. See here:

[    4.929325] ata5.00: ATAPI: HL-DT-STDVD-RAM GH22NS30, 1.01, max UDMA/100
[    5.314643] scsi 4:0:0:0: CD-ROM            HL-DT-ST DVD-RAM GH22NS30 1.01 PQ: 0 ANSI: 5
[    5.316189] sr0: scsi3-mmc drive: 125x/48x writer dvd-ram cd/rw xa/form2 cdda tray
[    5.480301] ata7.00: ATAPI: HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GSA-4160B, A301, max UDMA/66
[    5.501911] scsi 6:0:0:0: CD-ROM            HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GSA-4160B A301 PQ: 0 ANSI: 5
[    5.513408] sr1: scsi3-mmc drive: 40x/40x writer dvd-ram cd/rw xa/form2 cdda tray