On Jan 3, 2008 3:57 PM, Ruslan Sivak <rsivak at istandfor.com> wrote: > We have a RHEL2 server that has had one of the drives in the raid array > fail. I would like to do a full backup of the system before we replace > the raided drive, in case the second drive decides to die during the > procedure. > > What is the recommended way to back up a linux system? I was thinking > of doing a snapshot, but the system is ext3 with no LVM. It has been > suggested to hook up a usb drive and do an rsync of /. Are there any > better solutions? > > The reason I wanted a snapshot is that I wanted to get an image of the > disk, so that I wouldn't have to reinstall and reconfigure all the apps. > On an EL-2 system you do not have much in the way of 'snap-shot' technology and in the case of failed drives etc.. they wouldn't be much better than an rsync, dump, tar etc of the system. rsync -avSHP --exclude proc / system2:/snapshots/system1/ -- Stephen J Smoogen. -- CSIRT/Linux System Administrator How far that little candle throws his beams! So shines a good deed in a naughty world. = Shakespeare. "The Merchant of Venice"