Total Backup

[jimp]

hello all,

I don't know if this is where I should post this but for lack of finding a better spot here it is;

I recently had a hard drive failure on our Linux webserver, due to negligence and stupidity on my part I only had a handful of things backed up. when this happened I grabbed another 40 gig drive ( I have a stack of them that were failed video raid drives, go figure they would fail again) reinstalled all the programs and began the painstaking endeavourer of configuring everything. I also ordered a new 120 gig drive I installed it in my Linux server and created 3 40 gig partitions , /backup /spare /winfiles (the last being fat32 formatted while the former 2 Linux fs3) this is all on mandrake 10 distro.

what I need is for someone to lead me in the right direction from here, I would like to set this up so that my Mandrake 10.0 on the old drive is redundantly backed up to the new one so if and when it fails again I can just point lilo or grub or whatever to the other drive and be back in business, I would also like the backup drive to stay current with as little input from me as possible. so if anyone knows what packages I need to install or how to set this up please reply and thanks in advance for any help, also if you need to know anything else about my system or what I’m trying to do feel free to ask. I am new to Linux so I probably haven’t provided the details you need, thanks again

jimp

 

[moved from Software by spinynorman - welcome aboard :)]

[Gowator]

Hi jimp.

the basic command you want is probably dd

this copies a bit for bit image from one device to another.

 

however both devices need to be the same (or complex stuff used)

another way is to use partimage which creates a image of the partition...

this can also compress

 

you can use cron/anacron for doing things at the same time every day/week etc the and since its a server cron should be as good as anacron which is designed more for a workstation that isnt 24x7

 

try looking into these suggestions and see if that helps...

then post back further questions

[jimp]

Thanks,

Just a quick note of appreciation (home for lunch)

That’s just the type of info I was hoping to get, as soon as I get time I will look into your suggestions, I assume dd is a command line utility already part of the shell that I can find a man page on, and that partimage is a separate package? And since running them via cron they can be run without shutting down. Cool

Once again thanks and I will post back after doing some research.

[adamw]

how is the primary 40GB drive set up? is it one big partition or several small ones? if it's several small ones, you'll want to split the 40GB backup partition up to match it exactly. then the command to run is simply:

 

dd /dev/hdXX /dev/hdXX

 

where the first device is the one that matches the partition you wish to backup, and the second is the one that matches the partition which will be the backup.

 

There are options for dd that can be tweaked to improve its speed, as well, I think.

[Gowator]

how is the primary 40GB drive set up? is it one big partition or several small ones? if it's several small ones, you'll want to split the 40GB backup partition up to match it exactly. then the command to run is simply:

 

dd /dev/hdXX /dev/hdXX

 

where the first device is the one that matches the partition you wish to backup, and the second is the one that matches the partition which will be the backup.

 

There are options for dd that can be tweaked to improve its speed, as well, I think.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

yep it has lots of options... its incredibly flexible writing raw to tape/disk punchcard???

 

the hard part is finding what you need...

I think partimage uses dd anyway (or cpio) but either way make sure you check out the options...the above will (I think) only work for two partitions with the same geometry but Im more used to the more basic dd in solaris (sun)

[jimp]

Ok I just got home (long day) so I wont have time to play with it at all tonight but I will see what I can do tomorrow.

how is the primary 40GB drive set up? is it one big partition or several small ones? If it's several small ones, you'll want to split the 40GB backup partition up to match it exactly. Then the command to run is simply:

No I just split the my system drive (40 gig) "/" "/boot" "/home "/var" "/usr", but the

new 120 gig I just partitioned it with three 40 gig partitions, so I guess I should repartition the back up drive to more closely match my primary drive before I get started.

[Gowator]

Ok I just got home (long day) so I wont have time to play with it at all tonight but I will see what I can do tomorrow.

how is the primary 40GB drive set up? is it one big partition or several small ones? If it's several small ones, you'll want to split the 40GB backup partition up to match it exactly. Then the command to run is simply:

No I just split the my system drive (40 gig) "/" "/boot" "/home "/var" "/usr", but the

new 120 gig I just partitioned it with three 40 gig partitions, so I guess I should repartition the back up drive to more closely match my primary drive before I get started.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

It depends how automated and complete you want it...

In the past we had this for work and the idea was a failover but usually you wanna see what went wrong so in the end the extra time spent decompressing might be worth it for the saved space (dd images include blank space)

 

Id suggest looking at partimage first...I used to be a die hard dd person till someone here pointed me at partimage...