topic Re: Linux Disaster Recovery - Bootable Recovery? in Operating System - Linux

Linux Disaster Recovery - Bootable Recovery?

MattJ123 — Tue, 30 Nov 2004 12:07:15 GMT

Hey all,

I'm looking for something in which I can burn a live system to dvdrw, which is bootable and able to restore the system to its last backed up state.

The configuration used is 2 scsi drives, raid 1, and lvm on top of the raid. USB DVDRW, and USB Floppy. mkcdrec doesn't work well with this configuration, and I've tried multiple revisions of mondoarchive. All with little success. The system backed up, but the LVM seemed to confuse both packages.

First of all, with the exception of the two packages already mentioned does any software exist that accomplishes this? Free, or Commercial?

If not, what sort of backup solutions which can be burned to dvdrw and automated would be appropriate for os/database backups? Esentially, bare metal install worst case scenario type stuff.

FYI, the backup would never be bigger than a DVD.

Matt

Re: Linux Disaster Recovery - Bootable Recovery?

Steven E. Protter — Tue, 30 Nov 2004 12:53:02 GMT

Up until I checked today, this product did the exact job you desire:

http://www.mondorescue.org/

Seems there has been some kind of legal dispute and the product has been pulled of the Internet.

It was free.

My alternate method of making bootable backups is thus:

Make a Windows 98/Me boot cd or diskette.

Boot the box.

Run Symmantec's Norton Ghost product and image the entire hard disk.

You can go to writeable CD or with intel NIC cards a share on nother server.

Now you have a bootable recovery method.

SEP

Re: Linux Disaster Recovery - Bootable Recovery?

MattJ123 — Tue, 30 Nov 2004 13:01:58 GMT

Mondo does not work with my hardware configuration. I did the backups, but the restore is broken. Raid1 + LVM confused it nicely. A dead project is not really an option as this system would be around a while and I need to count on the software being around / supported if need be.

Re: Linux Disaster Recovery - Bootable Recovery?

Nobody's Hero — Tue, 30 Nov 2004 13:50:55 GMT

My restore did not work at first either , using mondo. You need to boot from CD and edit lilo. This worked nicely for me. If you need specifics, just ask and I'll post the recovery steps. If you use grub loader, mondo will choke on the restore. At this point you need to use lilo after booting to cd. config lilo then retry the mondo recovery.

Re: Linux Disaster Recovery - Bootable Recovery?

MattJ123 — Tue, 30 Nov 2004 14:20:30 GMT

that would be great if you could post the steps. before the backup, i was using grub, but i will try editing lilo right away and doing a lilo -v .. thanks in advance.

Re: Linux Disaster Recovery - Bootable Recovery?

MattJ123 — Tue, 30 Nov 2004 14:27:07 GMT

actually.. i just tried to boot a recovery with redhat's rescue mode (its a redhat es3 installation). redhat was unable to detect the logical volumes, and on further inspection it appears they were not properly re-created..

mondo does not appear to cut it

Re: Linux Disaster Recovery - Bootable Recovery?

Steven E. Protter — Tue, 30 Nov 2004 17:58:21 GMT

Mondo appears to be a dead product right now anyway.

Symmatec isn't going to work well on a multi disk setup either.

Suggestion: Contact HP and add your name to the list asking for a Linux Ignite port. They may decide to do it.

I'll see if I can find you a commerical product and post that in later in the day.

SEP

Re: Linux Disaster Recovery - Bootable Recovery?

Andrea Rossi — Wed, 01 Dec 2004 02:47:53 GMT

think the better solution is tapeware, certified for hp storageworks.

Re: Linux Disaster Recovery - Bootable Recovery?

MattJ123 — Wed, 01 Dec 2004 09:31:37 GMT

A tape drive is not something I would like to consider at this point, although I agree that it would probably do the best job.

Here's what I've decided on for the backups:
dump(1) will be utilized. Dump will dump the filesystem(s), and then they will be bzip2 compressed and burned to dvd-rw.

For the recovery
1. Redhat Kickstart, this will re-create a base OS and reslice the drive with raid1 and lvm.
2. Boot in rescue mode (or use a rescue distro) and use restore(1) to restore the filesystems.

Thanks for all the input