Dear CentOs users,
I have a centos server with nothing important at the moment, but I would like to install some web-based project management tool (trac for the curious) that would contain important data. And, as my network is growing the configuration of the server is becoming complex. I would like to have a proper backup so that I can restore the whole system easily, should any problem occur. What do you recommend?
I'm not an expert on this, so my first idea is that I could do a per application backup and create a tar file of the /etc. The latter especially could be too naive. And, a push-the-button method that handles all in once, not depending on the app number would be much better.
Another thing: how I could do this to be safe across a centos upgrade?
- Gergely
I've had good results using Clonezilla for complete backup of OS+data. It backs up entire disks/partitions, so includes everything including configuration files, tweaks etc. It is fast compared to something like Ghost, and can backup to devices (USB stick or external HDD) or a network location. Restores are also fast and have been flawless to date (restoring to identical hardware).
If you want to restore an entire system in all its detail in one quick operation, something like Clonezilla is worth investigating.
or Google "Gparted-clonezilla" as many versions of Clonezilla are packaged on a Live CD with Gparted.
Gergely Buday wrote:
Dear CentOs users,
I have a centos server with nothing important at the moment, but I would like to install some web-based project management tool (trac for the curious) that would contain important data. And, as my network is growing the configuration of the server is becoming complex. I would like to have a proper backup so that I can restore the whole system easily, should any problem occur. What do you recommend?
I'm not an expert on this, so my first idea is that I could do a per application backup and create a tar file of the /etc. The latter especially could be too naive. And, a push-the-button method that handles all in once, not depending on the app number would be much better.
Another thing: how I could do this to be safe across a centos upgrade?
- Gergely
CentOS mailing list CentOS@centos.org http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos
2008/6/22 Anne Wilson cannewilson@googlemail.com:
On Sunday 22 June 2008 09:37:38 admin wrote:
I've had good results using Clonezilla for complete backup of OS+data.
Is there any compression? Does it span multiple CDs if necessary?
Anne _______________________________________________ CentOS mailing list CentOS@centos.org http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos
Anne Wilson wrote:
I've had good results using Clonezilla for complete backup of OS+data.
Is there any compression? Does it span multiple CDs if necessary?
It does an image copy and knows enough about most filesystems to only copy the used portions of the disk. Yes it compresses, no it doesn't split - or write CD's directly. It lets you store the image in a variety of places (network mount via samba, NFS, or ssh), local disks which could be USB external, etc.). After the image is stored, you can use a command line to convert the image to a bootable DVD image containing clonezilla and the image. But it doesn't split and you have to use some other utility to burn the DVD. It would probably work pretty well to install clonezilla to boot from a large USB disk where you could store images directly and restore from them.
On Sunday 22 June 2008 15:27:34 Les Mikesell wrote:
Anne Wilson wrote:
I've had good results using Clonezilla for complete backup of OS+data.
Is there any compression? Does it span multiple CDs if necessary?
It does an image copy and knows enough about most filesystems to only copy the used portions of the disk. Yes it compresses, no it doesn't split - or write CD's directly. It lets you store the image in a variety of places (network mount via samba, NFS, or ssh), local disks which could be USB external, etc.). After the image is stored, you can use a command line to convert the image to a bootable DVD image containing clonezilla and the image. But it doesn't split and you have to use some other utility to burn the DVD. It would probably work pretty well to install clonezilla to boot from a large USB disk where you could store images directly and restore from them.
With usb sticks becoming so cheap that's a viable option, then. Thanks
Anne
Yep, and USB external hard drives are even cheaper per GB.
Here in Australia an 8G USB stick retails for around AU$50, while a 250G 2.5" external HDD is around AU$140 by comparison (about 1/10 the cost per GB).
Anne Wilson wrote:
On Sunday 22 June 2008 15:27:34 Les Mikesell wrote:
Anne Wilson wrote:
I've had good results using Clonezilla for complete backup of OS+data.
Is there any compression? Does it span multiple CDs if necessary?
It does an image copy and knows enough about most filesystems to only copy the used portions of the disk. Yes it compresses, no it doesn't split - or write CD's directly. It lets you store the image in a variety of places (network mount via samba, NFS, or ssh), local disks which could be USB external, etc.). After the image is stored, you can use a command line to convert the image to a bootable DVD image containing clonezilla and the image. But it doesn't split and you have to use some other utility to burn the DVD. It would probably work pretty well to install clonezilla to boot from a large USB disk where you could store images directly and restore from them.
With usb sticks becoming so cheap that's a viable option, then. Thanks
Anne
CentOS mailing list CentOS@centos.org http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos
Do you need to shut your machine down to use clonezilla? After a quick skim of the site, I can't find anything that says you don't.
On Sun, Jun 22, 2008 at 7:27 AM, Les Mikesell lesmikesell@gmail.com wrote:
Anne Wilson wrote:
I've had good results using Clonezilla for complete backup of OS+data.
Is there any compression? Does it span multiple CDs if necessary?
It does an image copy and knows enough about most filesystems to only copy the used portions of the disk. Yes it compresses, no it doesn't split - or write CD's directly. It lets you store the image in a variety of places (network mount via samba, NFS, or ssh), local disks which could be USB external, etc.). After the image is stored, you can use a command line to convert the image to a bootable DVD image containing clonezilla and the image. But it doesn't split and you have to use some other utility to burn the DVD. It would probably work pretty well to install clonezilla to boot from a large USB disk where you could store images directly and restore from them.
-- Les Mikesell lesmikesell@gmail.com
CentOS mailing list CentOS@centos.org http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos
I think so, at least you do the way I use it because you boot the machine off the Clonezilla CD, then mount the device/partition you're backing up to and select the device/partition being backed up.
But Clonezilla also has a whole network mode of operation involving a Clonezilla server, so I can't rule it out ... maybe someone else can?
Gary Richardson wrote:
Do you need to shut your machine down to use clonezilla? After a quick skim of the site, I can't find anything that says you don't.
On Sun, Jun 22, 2008 at 7:27 AM, Les Mikesell <lesmikesell@gmail.com mailto:lesmikesell@gmail.com> wrote:
Anne Wilson wrote: I've had good results using Clonezilla for complete backup of OS+data. Is there any compression? Does it span multiple CDs if necessary? It does an image copy and knows enough about most filesystems to only copy the used portions of the disk. Yes it compresses, no it doesn't split - or write CD's directly. It lets you store the image in a variety of places (network mount via samba, NFS, or ssh), local disks which could be USB external, etc.). After the image is stored, you can use a command line to convert the image to a bootable DVD image containing clonezilla and the image. But it doesn't split and you have to use some other utility to burn the DVD. It would probably work pretty well to install clonezilla to boot from a large USB disk where you could store images directly and restore from them. -- Les Mikesell lesmikesell@gmail.com <mailto:lesmikesell@gmail.com> _______________________________________________ CentOS mailing list CentOS@centos.org <mailto:CentOS@centos.org> http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos
CentOS mailing list CentOS@centos.org http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos
admin wrote:
I think so, at least you do the way I use it because you boot the machine off the Clonezilla CD, then mount the device/partition you're backing up to and select the device/partition being backed up.
But Clonezilla also has a whole network mode of operation involving a Clonezilla server, so I can't rule it out ... maybe someone else can?
Any time you do partition/filesystem image backups you have to make sure nothing changes until the copy is complete, so you typically need to run from CD to back up. File based backups (tar, cpio, etc.) aren't quite as picky although it is still best if nothing changes. You could use some tricks like LVM snapshots, but clonezilla doesn't. The network mode lets you boot via PXE instead of the CD and automatically NFS mounts the server so you can save and restore from there, but otherwise is about the same.
Gergely Buday wrote:
Dear CentOs users,
I have a centos server with nothing important at the moment, but I would like to install some web-based project management tool (trac for the curious) that would contain important data. And, as my network is growing the configuration of the server is becoming complex. I would like to have a proper backup so that I can restore the whole system easily, should any problem occur. What do you recommend?
I'm not an expert on this, so my first idea is that I could do a per application backup and create a tar file of the /etc. The latter especially could be too naive. And, a push-the-button method that handles all in once, not depending on the app number would be much better.
Another thing: how I could do this to be safe across a centos upgrade?
I use dump (and restore). It works nice for ext3 file systems. First you do a full dump (level 0) then you do an incremental dump (1 or higher):
dumplevel=0 or for incremental dumplevel=1
# To use ssh to connect to the remote host export RSH=ssh
# then dump dump -${dumplevel} -u -z -f remote_host:/sda1_dump /dev/sda1
You have to fill in your device and filename of course....
See man dump/restore
Cheers, Theo
-
admin -
Anne Wilson -
Gary Richardson -
Gergely Buday -
Les Mikesell -
Ned Slider -
nightduke -
Theo Band [GreenPeak]