Re: Disaster recovery, network based tape storage

[Ed Wilts <ewilts ewilts org>]

On Thu, Sep 30, 2004 at 10:41:01AM -0700, shane stixrud org wrote:
> On Thu, 30 Sep 2004, Dominic Rivera wrote:
> 
> > I'm looking for comments and suggestions on how to perform this
> > operation for a bare metal restore in my disaster recovery planning.
> > 
> > Currently, I'm using NetBackup 5.0, all backups are kept on a
> > netbackup server which is accessable via the network.
> > 
> > What I *think* the process should look like is this.
> > 
> > 0. <bonk> total server failure, new hardware brought in
> > 1. Boot from rescue cd that has NetBackup 5.0 Client installed.
> > 2. Recreate all partitions and logical volumes, configure backup client.
> > 3. Use alternate path recovery to restore / and /boot partitions.
> > 4. chroot into the newly recovered root.
> > 5. Install grub & reboot.
> > 6. Restore remaining data. 
> 
> Sigh, what I would like is something a bit more instructional.  I just 
> hate the idea of using full system backups, yes you can recover but  
> you have no idea as to the steps required to get RHEL back to its present 
> state.  I accept that backups are required for "live data" i.e. databases, 
> non static config data etc... But everything else really should be solved 
> using an automated installation / configuration engine like kickstart. 

Unfortunately, in the real world, the live data is what counts a *lot*
more than the "everything else" you mention.  Installing the OS and
configuring the apps is fairly straightforward these days - heck, RHCEs
do it (and more) in under 3 hours to pass the exam.  Putting back all
the user files, crontabs, passwd and group data (I know, I need ldap!)
and applying custom configurations for some of the packages (httpd, ftpd,
etc) take the bulk of the work.

-- 
Ed Wilts, RHCE
Mounds View, MN, USA
mailto:ewilts ewilts org
Member #1, Red Hat Community Ambassador Program