What needs to be backed up?

[joseph wholey]

Trying to determine what files should be backed up prior to applying maintenance to my RHEL AS 3 server. For example, prior to doing maintenance on my AIX servers, we run a mksysb. What are the essentials for recovering your system?

[Ivan Ferreira]

Basically, you should backup ALL your file systems created during os installation. You can use an image software like mondo.

http://www.mondorescue.org/

[Vipulinux]

Hi

Usually depends on the server config. ef for my DNS server I just backup my dns related and network files.

If you need a full backup you need to use some tools for backup eg. Veritas Netbackup or ArcServer, Brigtstor etc etc

For full image of disk you can use the inbuilt utility i.e. dd

Cheers
Vipul

[renarios]

Hi Joseph,

Before upgrading my O.S., I backed up my /etc, /usr and /var directories, because /etc and /usr contain applications and /var contains my application data.
So, you have to determin where your applications are installed and where the data is stored.

Cheerio,

Renarios

[Alan_152]

How much backup space do you have in relation to your system's total storage? If backup time and downtime aren't concerns, then you can't go wrong with a level-0 cold backup...