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Jil & Neil, |
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Thanks for the really great information! I'm going to give this a try today. |
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|
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It strikes me that to test my backup I could create a chroot on the |
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very system I'm backing up. (Or some other system.) I follow the |
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procedure we're outlining here using the install CD and when it's done |
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I reboot the system, create a few small partitions in some extra disk |
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space, untar the files, chroot into that environment, run some |
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commands to test things, and then put the tar'ed files away for safe |
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keeping feeling pretty good that everything is where I need it should |
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the worst happen. |
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|
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Again, thanks for the info. I do appreciate it. |
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|
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Cheers, |
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Mark |
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|
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On Sun, May 4, 2008 at 3:21 AM, Jil Larner <jil@××××.eu> wrote: |
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> Hi Mark, |
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> |
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> Mark Knecht a écrit : |
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> |
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> > [...] |
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> > |
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> > happen I have a way to restore where I am today. Since the disk usage |
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> > is currently about 4GB it seems like a great time to do it. Is this |
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> > possible? I think it's essentially what the stage 3 file is that I use |
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> > when I install, isn't it? |
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> > |
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> |
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> If you don't export stage3 and /usr/portage/ files, your backup will be |
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> lighter. The portage tree shouldn't be backed up because it shall be |
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> outdated when you'll restore, and emerge --sync will bring it back (except |
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> if you plan to restore in two weeks and have a low speed connection so you |
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> use emerge-delta-webrsync, but in that case you already know why you need to |
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> keep the tree). |
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> For stage3, you can safely discard it. |
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> |
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> Cf. exclude-dires in man tar |
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> |
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> |
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> |
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> > |
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> > |
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> > > From the running system here's what things look like right now: |
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> > > |
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> > |
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> > laptop1 ~ # df |
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> > Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on |
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> > /dev/sda5 15820524 3641240 11375636 25% / |
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> > udev 10240 172 10068 2% /dev |
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> > /dev/sda6 1320272 189304 1063900 16% /var |
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> > /dev/sda7 10278304 312012 9444184 4% /home |
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> > shm 1003844 0 1003844 0% /dev/shm |
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> > laptop1 ~ # |
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> > |
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> > |
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> |
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> Tip: use df -h and put it as an alias (alias df='df -h' in .bashrc) ;) |
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> |
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> |
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> |
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> > My thought is to boot using the install CD, mount a USB drive at |
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> > /mnt/gentoo, then create a mount point 'backup' on the USB drive to |
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> > mount each of the 3 partitions I want to back up one at a time. ( /, |
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> > /var and /home) Then I'll mount each partition by itself and use tar |
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> > to create a single file for each partition where that file gets |
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> > written on the USB drive. When I'm done I have 3 files. |
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> > |
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> |
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> Thus, you would be able to restore only one partition if needed, and there |
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> is less chance that all your archive becomes corrupted. I would process the |
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> same way. |
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> |
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> You also ought to backup the full MBR, which is a good practice, so you can |
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> bring back your boot sector and the partition table. Backing it up if very |
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> painless, just a dd command, cf. http://gentoo-wiki.com/MBR . And it saves a |
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> *lot* of time when restoring (especially when there is @&$#! vista |
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> partitions with more sectors than there is really on the disk...) |
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> |
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> |
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> |
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> > |
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> > Restore would be to create the partitions anew, untar, install grub |
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> > from in the chroot, and reboot. |
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> > |
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> |
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> So, restore would be a dd command for the MBR, and a mkfs on your |
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> partitions, then untar your backups. So you wouldn't even need to chroot |
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> |
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> |
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> |
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> |
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> > |
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> > Is this a reasonable way to go? Is there something easier? (That seems |
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> > pretty easy to me...) |
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> > |
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> |
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> It is reasonable, for one single computer. If you've more to manage, look |
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> at dedicated software, or more complex solution as in |
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> http://gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_Backup |
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> |
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> |
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> |
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> > |
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> > I don't want to create images of the partitions because I might want |
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> > to put the data onto a different drive or in a different |
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> > configuration. (Like no /var or something.) |
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> > |
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> |
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> With a separate backup of the MBR, you're free to restore it or not ;) But |
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> if you want to be able to adjust your partition tables, leave free space on |
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> the drive and take a look at LVM, very powerful and easy to use by now |
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> (there's a good tutorial on howtoforge with a debian VMWare virtual machine) |
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> |
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> |
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> |
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> > |
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> > If this makes sense then what commands would I want to use to do this |
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> > correctly. Presumably it needs to tar up links, file system |
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> > permissions, and everything else. Since the Quick Install guide uses |
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> > |
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> |
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> You *must* keep permissions of your files, so if you use tar, use -p option |
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> (cf. man), as if you use cp, use -p option. |
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> |
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> |
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> |
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> |
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> > Or is there more to it? |
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> > |
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> |
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> Yep, that's it. Restore mbr, mkfs, mount, untar, sync(or umount), reboot |
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> |
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> |
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> |
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> |
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> > |
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> > I'm rambling here so I'll hope for a quick answer and then give it a try. |
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> > |
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> > Thanks in advance, |
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> > Mark |
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> > |
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> -- |
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> gentoo-user@l.g.o mailing list |
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> |
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> |
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-- |
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