[CentOS] Backing up a centos serveR? how to ? Newbie question..

[Les Mikesell]

RoLaNd RoLaNd wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> 
> excuse my newbie question but how can i backup my centos server?
> 
> i have a dozzen of virtual hosts over it as well as substantial database 
> entries..
> 
> i've backed up the following directories using rsync:
> 
> workspace/
> /etc/httpd/
> /etc/apache-tomcat-6.0.20/
> /usr/lib/mysql/
> /var/lib/mysql
> 
> 
> though i'm still not at ease with this, so i decided to do a some sort 
> of clone or something to move this server to a VMWARE which i will turn 
> on when needed (if main server failed)
> 
> any advice on how to do so ?
> 
> i've looked around and tried using "clonezilla" though that didn't work 
> with me, i guess i mustve done something wrong... each time i try to 
> boot from the cloned image of the local disk (which in turn cloned to 
> the VM's local disk) it gives an error bout root records...

Can you be more specific about the error message?  This should be like any other 
case of moving linux to different hardware. If the disk drivers don't match what 
is installed you have to rebuild the initrd with correct drivers.  Or, the 
quick-fix is to boot from a live CD and copy the contents of /boot over from a 
machine (or VM) where the same version was installed on the same real or virtual 
hardware.

> so any other way ?

If you are going to VMware, you can probably use the vmware converter program 
that you can download for free.  It will convert a running machine to a vmware 
image file or from one version of vmware to another, including the ESXi server 
where you don't have normal access to the filesystem.

-- 
   Les Mikesell
    lesmikesell at gmail.com