Re: System Backup

[Rick Stevens <rstevens vitalstream com>]

John Strunk wrote:
> All,
> I have been watching this list for the last few months and have found 
> some good advice.  Thanks.
>
> Now I have a situation that I need help to resolve.
>
> I have four RedHat systems that I take care of, two are RH9 and two are 
> RH8.  They are all servers with most everything available installed.  My 
> backup strategy in the past has been to backup all data files both 
> system and private.  Then if  there is a failure I can reload the system 
> and download all the current patches and updates to the system and 
> finally restore the data files.
>
> Now that Red Hat is dropping support for release 8  and soon dropping 
> support for release 9 I am faced with the problem of keeping a complete 
> system backup as well as the data.
> I am not sure if I have the knowledge to do this.  Can anyone explain 
> what system files I need to backup so that I can rebuild the system 
> starting with the RedHat distribution DVDs?
> It may be a simple thing but I seem to lack a few of the details to pull 
> it off.

The problem is in differentiating between what constitutes the OS and
what constitutes user data.  Since things can be intertwined (tweaked
.conf files and such), this isn't such an easy thing to do.

I'd back up the whole system, OS and all.  During a recovery, you'd
install the OS from CD and RPM updates, then you can restore the files
from the backup set but specify that the system may NOT overwrite
existing files.  This will prevent your customized stuff (or older
updates that are on the backup media) from stomping on your freshly
installed system.  You can remake your tweaks and make note of those
files.  Most backup/recovery systems allow you to say "don't overwrite
any existing files EXCEPT for these", then specify a list.

It all rather depends on which backup system you use.  If you can tell
us what you use, we may be able to help.
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- Rick Stevens, Senior Systems Engineer     rstevens vitalstream com -
- VitalStream, Inc.                       http://www.vitalstream.com -
-                                                                    -
-  Tempt not the dragons of fate, since thou art crunchy and taste   -
-                         good with ketchup.                         -
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