News Group Posts

restore linux system from tape

backup

From: Bob Hauck <bob@this-is.invalid>
Subject: Re: restoring system from tape
References: <h3_D9.50569$Ik.1342718@typhoon.sonic.net> 
Date: Sun, 24 Nov 2002 17:09:20 GMT

On Sun, 24 Nov 2002 06:10:21 GMT, Bob Holtzman <holtzm@hosed.sonic.net> wrote:

> I would like to backup the entire system (minus /, /proc and /root) 
> to tape using tar. It has been my understanding that if a reinstall
> from CD is necessary, extracting the archive while in the root 
> directory would overwrite the existing directories and files and 
> restore the system to the latest updated configuration.

If you truly have _everything_ on tape (including /root and /dev if you
don't use /devfs), then all you need to do is boot from a rescue floppy,
fdisk, mkfs, mount the disk, and restore.  Then re-run lilo with the -r
option and you are back in business.  This does work.  Obviously you
need to make sure your rescue floppy has the right drivers for your tape
and disk devices, and the appropriate archive program <g>.

On the other hand, it is often quicker to install from CD than to read a
big tape.  In that case, just back up /etc, /usr/local, and /home plus
any custom directory trees you create. If disaster strikes, reinstall
from CD and then restore those directories. The one gotcha is making
sure you have re-installed the same set of software that you started
with.  With Debian you can do this by:

dpkg --get-selections > backup-selections
dpkg --set-selections < backup-selections
apt-get dselect-upgrade

With RPM-based distros you should be able to get a list of installed
RPM's and do something similar.  Or keep notes.
 

> Lately I've seen a couple of posts alluding to the fact that this isn't
> as simple as I think, but no details were given.

Restoring the whole system from tape isn't hard.  You just need to make
sure you have in fact backed up the the whole system minus things like
/proc and /devfs that are automagically generated.

-- 
 -| Bob Hauck
 -| To Whom You Are Speaking
 -| http://www.haucks.org/
 

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