Your disk image question is really going to need some software that can run from a floppy so no files on the partitions you want to copy are in use. It also needs to connect the workstation your takeing the image from to the network so the large image can be copied to the server.
We use some software from PowerQuest. I forget the name of it. Deploy something or other. Anyway, all I use of it is the part that builds the boot floppies. When creating the floppies, I tell it what server and share I want to connect to to store the image. Actually, several different connections can be used. I suppose if someone were clever, A boot floppy could be created that had just enough software on it to provide a console, connect to a NIC, mount a HD partition, mount a place on a Linux server and then, I suppose use dd to copy the partition to the server. You mentioned ghost needing another server to run. I have only used ghost once but it worked just like the stuff we got from PowerQuest. It just ran from a floppy. I think it would do what you want but you will need to go to the workstation and boot it from the floppy. Same floppy is used to restore the image. Brett ___ Linux linuxDBA 2.4.18-4GB #1 Wed Mar 27 13:57:05 UTC 2002 i686 unknown 8:57pm up 20 min, 1 user, load average: 0.02, 0.02, 0.00 On Thu, 10 Oct 2002, Paul Kraus wrote: > Answers below > -------- > 1. "Drive" is ambiguous. In the Linux world, a "drive" is a physical > device > (e.g., IDE primary, accessed as /dev/hda). A drive contains partitions > that > in turn contain filesystems. Windows people seem to use "drive" to refer > > both to a physical device and to a filesystem in a partition on a drive. > In > Linux/Unix terminology, your example -- "Microsoft machines "c" drive" > -- > probably refers to creating an image of a *filesystem*, not a *drive*. > Is > that what you really mean? > -=-=-=-=--=-= > I can see the confusion. It would be a Partition (with a windows file > system) on > A physical drive attached to a windows machine. > > 2. I assume you want to run something on the Linux server that does this > > job. So ... how is the filesystem visible to Linux on the server? It is > an > NFS mount? An SMB mount? Something else? > -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= > I can mount the file system using SMB. Cp and tar are not viable options > > As they can not do anything with locked files. Which is why I was hoping > > For something similar to Norton Ghost which does a byte by Byte image. > > 3. With boot drives, there are special considerations, involving the > boot > sector and possibly some files that need to be in known locations (this > is > true for LILO, at least; I'm not expert enough in Windows to know what > might matter there). Does this backup-to-image solution need to address > any > restrictions that are, in this sense, outside the structure of the > filesystem? > -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= > No it does not. There are a couple machines (The CEO and VP) that I > would like to > Be able to do a full system restore without having to load any apps or > windows itself. > To minimize downtime and to return there systems to the exact state of > when the backup > Occurred. > > 4. How much flexibility does the corresponding restore function need? > Does > it need only to restore to the same physical drive (or another that is > physically identical), or do you want to be able to put a copy of the > filesystem on a another drive with different geometry (and perhaps even > a > different partition structure)? > -=-=-=-=-= > In the event that the hard drive was physically broken I may need to > install > A new hard drive that would have a different geometry. The same > partition > Size would be acceptable but I would prefer to be able to restore the > image to > A larger partition. > > A general suggestion ... coming from a Windows background, you may > assume > that Windows is s good starting reference point for capabilities. This > isn't true for all of us here; though I use Windows on my desktop, there > > are many things I know how to do with Linux that I can't begin to guess > how > to do with Windows. So, in this case, your reference to "ghost" does not > > help me understand your needs. I'm sure I'm not the only one here with > this > particular combination of knowledge and ignorance ... you might get > better > responses if you didn't rely on Windows examples to clarify your needs. > -=-=-=-== > Linux is by far a better OS every day I keep looking at my windows > desktop and > Wanting to install LINUX. I use windows examples assuming (falsely) that > everyone > Has some knowledge of it and its apps so I try to use an app I think is > familiar > To try portray my needs. I will refrain from this in the future. > > Since I don't know how ghost works, let me ask this ... would a solution > be > to run ghost on the Windows host, them simply transfer (in any of the > usual > ways) the image it creates to the Linux server? > -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= > This would be a solution but then I require a 3rd machine in order to do > the restore. > 1. the workstation that is to be imaged, 2. the Linux server that is > holding that image, 3. the windows machine that can run ghost. > I am trying to replace all the things I do with windows with Linux. I am > using this as a way to become familiar with Linux as well as a way to > become independent of Microsoft. > > > -- > -------------------------------------------"Never tell me the > odds!"-------- > Ray Olszewski -- Han Solo > Palo Alto, California, USA [EMAIL PROTECTED] > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > ------- > > - > To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-newbie" in > the body of a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] > More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html > Please read the FAQ at http://www.linux-learn.org/faqs > - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-newbie" in the body of a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.linux-learn.org/faqs
