best tools for Linux image backup

[yyghp]

Hi there, what's the best tools for Linux IMAGE backup in the market?
I would like to use the tools like "partition magic", but for Linux, with which I can recover all Linux servers fast and reliably.
Thanks!

[Gopi Sekar]

I think you can use ghost or Altiri's imaging tool RDeploy

[xyko_1]

Hi,

you have many choices, some are complete some needs a live distro or a bootable diskete/cd to do the hole job.

http://freshmeat.net/projects/partimage/
http://freshmeat.net/projects/mondorescue/
http://freshmeat.net/projects/g4l/

regards,
xyko

[yyghp]

what's the ghost or Altiri's ?
could you provide the website ?
Thanks!

[yyghp]

btw, it's for production servers ( Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 ), I hope to find out the maturest backup tool.
thanks !

[yyghp]

is that Norton Ghost support Linux ?
thanks !

[Gopi Sekar]

Ghost: http://sea.symantec.com/content/product.cfm?productid=9

RDeploy:
http://www.altiris.com

They both do imaging and OS deployment. HP has a product called Rapid Deployment Pack which is based on Altiris Deployment and Imaging solution. RDP is for bare metal provisioning and OS deployment.

Sorry about the product advertisement, I work for the RDP product :)

Regards,
Gopi

[yyghp]

Hi Gopi,

I got some blade servers ( BL20p G3 ) here, and I think we have license to use RDP ( not sure ).
Can RDP work as an image backup tool, with which I can easily recover the whole system even I replace the current hard drive with a brand new one ?

Thanks!

[Gopi Sekar · Accepted solution]

yes you can use RDP to as image backup and replacement tool.

Especially if you are replacing a faulty hard disk with a new one, RDP can restore it automatically to a old known good state. Check for Rip N Replace feature of RDP.

few warnings to you: RDP can image ext2 and ext3 filesystems alone. it can not image LVM partitions and it can not image RHEL 4 (These two features are pending from Altiris and expected to be with next release of RDP)

Hope this helps,
Gopi

[dirk dierickx]

mondo - http://www.mondorescue.org/

[Oguz Kutlu Asik]

Hi,

You can use system rescue cd which includes most of programs for linux
Have a look at http://www.sysresccd.org

[Steven E. Protter]

I have found http://www.mondorescue.org

to be the most mature product.

I've also gotten away with offline backups using Norton Ghost. The problem with the Norton Ghost method is that the system has to be offline to get a clean image.

The problem with mondorescue is that its really one guy with a product dedicated to his girlfriend. Noble, but hard to risk the Enterprise on.

SEP

[Rouchon_2]

I have never ghosted a Linux. I'm Using an installation server and all installation is scripted. so reinstalling a server took 10m faster than a image copy, and it take only a few Bytes for the ks.cfg file. But if imaging the OS is a need and if you have blade servers then the best tool, for me, is definitly RDP from altiris.