Yes. Here are a couple of recommended ways to do this:

1. Create a separate backup with an empty backup profile:

   export TKLBAM_REGISTRY=/var/lib/tklbam.srv
   export TKLBAM_CONF=/etc/tklbam.srv
   
   tklbam-init --force-profile=empty
   tklbam-backup --skip-packages --skip-database -- /srv
   

2. Use the --raw-upload option

Yes. For example, let's say your default TKLBAM backup is several gigabytes in size and you'd like to create a lighter 100 MB backup that will be updated more frequently and take less time to update/restore:

One of my favorite ways to do this:

By default TKLBAM is designed to work with S3 automatically, and this is the easiest and safest option. In manual mode, TKLBAM can also work with non-S3 storage addresses, but this complicates usage and carries additional risks which you should make sure you understand first to avoid data loss.

Of all non-S3 manual storage targets, the local filesystem is the simplest options because you don't need to mess around with authentication credentials.

Every TurnKey appliance that TKLBAM supports has a corresponding backup profile, which is downloaded from the Hub when you initialize TKLBAM. The profile is used to calculate the list of system changes we need to backup. It usually describes the installation state of a TurnKey appliance and contains a list of packages, filesystem paths to scan for changes and an index of the contents of those paths which records timestamps, ownership and permissions.

You can also generate your own custom profiles with the following command:

By adding a negative override to /etc/tklbam/overrides:

echo -/var/www/*/logs >> /etc/tklbam/overrides

By adding an override to /etc/tklbam/overrides:

echo /mnt/images >> /etc/tklbam/overrides

Or on the command line:

tklbam-backup /var/www/*/logs

Make sure you understand the implications of doing this. For example, if you add a directory handled by package management this may break package management on the system you restore to.

A full backup is a backup that can be restored independently of any other backup. An incremental backup links with the last backup before it and only includes changes made since the previous backup.

Backup chains are links of backup sessions which start with a full backup, and then a series of incremental backups, each recording only the changes made since the backup before it. Incremental backups are useful because they are fast and efficient.

By adding a negative database override to /etc/tklbam/overrides:

# exclude drupal7 database
echo -mysql:drupal7 >> /etc/tklbam/overrides

# exclude sessions table in drupal8 database
echo -mysql:drupal8/sessions >> /etc/tklbam/overrides

Or on the command line:

tklbam-backup -- -mysql:drupal6/page_cache

By default ALL databases are backed up so adding a negative database override excludes only that database or table from the backup.

By default, a full backup will happen if the last full backup is older than 30 days. Between full backups, all backup sessions are incremental.

We recommend enabling the daily backup cron job so that daily incremental backups happen automatically:

chmod +x /etc/cron.daily/tklbam-backup

You can override the default by setting the full-backup parameter in the tklbam configuration:

# create a full backup every 14 days
echo full-backup 14D >> /etc/tklbam/conf