[ltp] Complete Backup (and restore)
Ed Siegner
linux-thinkpad@linux-thinkpad.org
Tue, 20 May 2003 09:24:36 -0700
Hi Adam, check for comments:
Adam Southerland wrote:
>
> No - I don't have a CDBurner or Tape drive that my laptop can handle =(
> My only real resource is via Network... (Printer port and serial ports
> too...)
>
Future purchase of an inexpensive desktop to act as a Linux server? With
CD or DVD burner. CD Burner is fairly standard to setup. DVD should be
soon.
> hmm... Taring them to a shared resource is probably my best option - will
> the TAR file hold any file attributes I need?
>
Yes. See the "man pages". One way of using "tar" where a remote machine
has disk space (and a CD burner) is:
Transferring the home directory and all subdirectories with attributes
tar zcf - /home/<my home dir> | (cd /mnt/<remote machine>/"backup dir";
tar xvf -)
or leaving the contents in a "tar'ed" file to be extracted later.
tar zcf /mnt/<remote machine>/030520tu_0900_MyHomeDir.tgz /home/<my
home dir>
I suggest that you experiment with "tar" and prove to yourself that it
works before trusting your system with it. The above will also require
permissions to be set on the remote machine for the user on the local
machine.
> Another problem I face is my CDRom isn't bootable (that I know of) and I
> have to swap my floppy drive out when I put the CDRom in so the more I can
> do with a floppy for the Backup/Restore the better... I have Slakware
> installed - I had to copy the install disksets to a DOS partition then boot
> with a Linux Boot disk and install those sets then wipe those sets off the
> dos partition and copy more of them there (Luckily, on the second part I can
> stay in Linux the whole time =)
>
To my understanding, booting from the CD ROM is a function of the
machine's BIOS - it treats the CD-ROM as if it was a floppy drive. Check
your system BIOS and see if it offers boot options - one being your
CD-ROM.
> For your Idea I would need to install and setup Samba on my Linux Box and
> what is NFS? (I should know it (Network File System) but I'm not really
> sure...) -- I have 3 other computers with different OS's - Win 2000 Adv
> Srvr, Win XP, and another Win 2000 Adv Server... Will a MS product be able
> to hold the TAR file on the network? - I have virtually all MS OSs so I have
> options to play with there... I don't know if that will help though...
>
"Will a MS product be able to hold the TAR file". It should, but within
it's file naming convention - ie 8.3. NFS to a Linux/UNIX machine will
keep the same file format.
> (btw... I am a fan of OSs in general, not just MS... I also have BeOS,
> Lindows, FreeBSD, Many flavors of Linux, FreeDOS, Dr Dos and so forth =) --
> Linux is the coolest and you can find out what you are running and what is
> exposed...)
>
> Thanks,
> Adam Southerland
>
Adam, check out www.tldp.org" and maybe stop by "Paul Sheer's" web site.
http://www.icon.co.za/~psheer/book/index.html.gz
He has an excellent book, "LINUX: Rute User's Tutorial and Exposition
(Version 1.0.0)" in PDF, HTML and paper that will give you a wealth of
information. He's put a lot of work into it but is offering it under the
GNU.
All that I have suggested works nicely and will be tools for your future
with Linux but build confidence in them before placing yourself out on a
limb. Also see what other options the list may offer - beauty of Open
Source (open mind) and Linux.
Ed
> ----Original Message Follows----
> Hi Adam,
>
> Hum... There are many ways to back up a Linux system - all depending on
> how things are setup.
>
> For my own systems, I have partitioned my hard disk where the /home and
> /usr/local are in there own partitions. Any software that was not on the
> distribution CD is under /usr/local. I backup/archive these partitions
> to CDs once a month, or more, depending on the level of change, along
> with the configuration files found in the /etc subdirectory (XFree86,
> iptables or ipchains, network information and other odds and ends.) If
> something should happen to the hard disk - failure, hack, or what every,
> I will use the original distribution CDs to recreate the system and then
> use the backup/archive CDs to restore the 2 fore mentioned
> subdirectories. I keep electronic notes on configuration procedures in
> cookbook/HOWTO style, so reinstallation is easy.
>
> >From your discription, it sounds like you have a full disk. I didn't
> sense you have a tape or CD burner? If you have access to a large
> "shared resource" on a machine that can hold your backup using NFS or
> Samba, you could "tar" the fore mentioned partitions to a file on them.
> Does this sound like a solution you want to look into?
>
> Ed
> --
> Ed Siegner Voice: 530.757.3418 Fax: 530.792.8703
> Systems Developer
> University of California, Davis
> One Shields Ave
> IET-Client Services / 3820 Chiles Rd
> Davis, Ca. 95616
> ejsiegner@ucdavis.edu http://irlinux.ucdavis.edu/eds/
> --
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--
Ed Siegner Voice: 530.757.3418 Fax: 530.792.8703
Systems Developer
University of California, Davis
One Shields Ave
IET-Client Services / 3820 Chiles Rd
Davis, Ca. 95616
ejsiegner@ucdavis.edu http://irlinux.ucdavis.edu/eds/