Re: [gentoo-user] Planning for a future crash
mathieu perrenoud wrote: Le Jeudi, 11 Décembre 2003 17.35, Chris Bare a écrit : /var is not another /tmp directory, there are lots of things in it, specially in /var/lib You should definitely not exclude /var from your backups. So keep /var in your backups, but remove /var/log, /var/tmp, /var/run, /var/lock and any other dirs that contain non-persistent files. Hey I start to realize that this is going to be a science.. I've installed Linux on all my home boxes in the last weeks, still reading manuals for installing this and that; I didn't reach the 'let's write a comprehensive, all-regarding backup script for my network' stage yet. I guess that'll take another week to find out what to backup and what to leave out.. -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list
Re: [gentoo-user] Planning for a future crash
Le Jeudi, 11 Décembre 2003 17.35, Chris Bare a écrit : > > IIRC the LiveCD does support ssh. You might have to start the ssh daemon > > with /etc/init.d/sshd start. Long ago I used it to get the stage 1 > > tarball from one of my machines to the box that was to be a Gentoo box. > > > > Backups: > > > > /home/* > > /etc/* > > /usr/local/anything you've added here. > > I'd add /var/cache/edb/world, so you know what packages you had emerged > before. /var is not another /tmp directory, there are lots of things in it, specially in /var/lib You should definitely not exclude /var from your backups. So keep /var in your backups, but remove /var/log, /var/tmp, /var/run, /var/lock and any other dirs that contain non-persistent files. -- mathieu perrenoud -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list
Re: [gentoo-user] Planning for a future crash
Chris Bare wrote: Backups: /home/* /etc/* /usr/local/anything you've added here. I'd add /var/cache/edb/world, so you know what packages you had emerged before. I'd also add, for example: /root/* - who doesn't change things there ? /var/cache/edb/virtuals (i removed that emacs monster because i don't use it) /usr/src/linux/.config (yeah the kernel config) maybe: /usr/portage/profiles/package.mask (?) and, and, and... - let's see how far this list will grow after some further replies by other readers.. -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list
Re: [gentoo-user] Planning for a future crash
> IIRC the LiveCD does support ssh. You might have to start the ssh daemon > with /etc/init.d/sshd start. Long ago I used it to get the stage 1 tarball > from one of my machines to the box that was to be a Gentoo box. > > Backups: > > /home/* > /etc/* > /usr/local/anything you've added here. > I'd add /var/cache/edb/world, so you know what packages you had emerged before. -- Chris Bare [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list
Re: [gentoo-user] Planning for a future crash
On Wed, 2003-12-10 at 20:00, Mark Knecht wrote: >I have two drives at his site, one internal and one external. I've > set things up for me to do manual backups of the system to the second > drive. (/etc and /home only for now. - comments on other things I should > be backing up?) Anyway, I now want to figure out how I could rebuild the > machine from here should it ever fail. I just implemented a HDD based backup scheme for my home network. Basically I have a cron job that makes a level 0 backup on Sunday morning, and a level 1 backups Monday through Saturday. My two laptops are backed up manually. I backup everything EXCEPT what is in my /etc/backup/exclude list (ie /dev, /proc, /mnt, /sys, /tmp, /var, /var/tmp, /home/mp3). Using an exception list is safer than an include list because if you forget to put something on an exception list, you end up with more data than you wanted. If you forget something on an include list, then you're screwed. Everyone will tell you that it is important to make regular backups, what is often overlooked is making backups of important meta data. I have a script that just dumps all meta data it can find. It dumps, the network configuration, the partition tables and /etc/fstab, hardware information, kernel config, DMI and BIOS data, and the output of /usr/lib/portage/bin/pkglist. This is a plain text file that is uploaded to my web server so I can always get to it. You never know when you might need your fine tuned kernel config. You might think this is overkill, but I recently had the unfortunate pleasure of testing my backup scheme when the drive on my gentoo based server suddenly died. My backup was complete enough that I was able to boot off a LiveCD, partition the drive, restore the files, install GRUB and reboot. It took me an hour to get the server to a booting system and another couple hours to run 'emerge -uD world'. (I don't normally run 'emerge -uD world' on my server) My advice is to do whatever you need to do to sleep comfortably at night. Someone wiser than me once said, "a good backup system should not depend on a human brain to do something." Quattro -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list
Re: [gentoo-user] Planning for a future crash
Celestial Wizard wrote: opps, my bad. i always get 0 and 1 backwards. must come from a distinct hate of hardware and spending all my time in networks :) -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list which still doesn't answer the question of what about using RAID _1_ ? -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list
Re: [gentoo-user] Planning for a future crash
opps, my bad. i always get 0 and 1 backwards. must come from a distinct hate of hardware and spending all my time in networks :) -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list
Re: [gentoo-user] Planning for a future crash
On Wed, 2003-12-10 at 22:01, Celestial Wizard wrote: > What about making the 2 Drives software RAID 0? I believe you will be limited in speed to the slowest drive in the pair. Considering that one is an external drive, in the current setup RAID 1 will probably be unacceptably slow. -- Thanks, Thomas Achtemichuk [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list
Re: [gentoo-user] Planning for a future crash
Celestial Wizard wrote: What about making the 2 Drives software RAID 0? Ummm I think you mean RAID1 That way at least 1 drive can fail and you can continue. In RAID 0 if you lose 1 drive you lose the data that is on both. -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list
Re: [gentoo-user] Planning for a future crash
Celestial Wizard wrote: What about making the 2 Drives software RAID 0? That way at least 1 drive can fail and you can continue. One thing about using a LiveCD is that you will need to configure the Internet / Dialin Connection over the phone unless you modify the CD and burn it -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list You would need it to be RAID 1 if you were wanting redundancy. RAID 0 just gives you a perfornace increase. IMHO RAID 0 should even be called RAID (redundant array of inexpensive/independent disks) because RAID 0 has no redunancy! -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list
Re: [gentoo-user] Planning for a future crash
On Wed, 2003-12-10 at 21:00, Mark Knecht wrote: >I built a Gentoo machine for my dad who is located about 350 miles > away. He's been using it for 2 weeks now and is loving it. Cool to see a > 75 year old guy using Mozilla and Evolution. Very cool indeed. I'm impressed. >I have two drives at his site, one internal and one external. I've > set things up for me to do manual backups of the system to the second > drive. (/etc and /home only for now. - comments on other things I should > be backing up?) Anyway, I now want to figure out how I could rebuild the > machine from here should it ever fail. I've set PKGDIR=/home/backup/packages and FEATURES="buildpkg ..." in make.conf. If something goes awry I can blow away my / partition and be up and running in no time using the packages saved to my separate /home drive. I've got about 500 packages installed and my packages directory is just under 3GB - If you've got the space it's definitely worth it. If you have a few things in your portage overlay you should back those up too. Kernel .config files are handy to keep as well, although fairly easily replaced. >I have no experience in this sort of thing, so the first idea I had > was to use the Live CD if it has sshd enabled and running. If he put it > in and rebooted, would the Live CD allow anyone to log in remotely? Yes, this is totally possible - just have your dad pop in the live cd, type 'passwd' and set the root password, then have him start sshd - the entire install is easily done over ssh. >Will this work? Any other ideas about how I could get ready for when > (not if) this eventually happens? One thing to look into will be Catalyst when it is capable of producing liveCDs. You could create a liveCD for your dad with all of his evolution and mozilla settings set up, with passwords set, sshd enabled and his internet connection set up. If anything goes wrong you can have him boot the liveCD and use his computer like usual as you rebuild his system behind the scenes over ssh. When you're done have him reboot and he's back up and running on his 'real' Gentoo system. -- Thanks, Thomas Achtemichuk [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list
Re: [gentoo-user] Planning for a future crash
What about making the 2 Drives software RAID 0? That way at least 1 drive can fail and you can continue. One thing about using a LiveCD is that you will need to configure the Internet / Dialin Connection over the phone unless you modify the CD and burn it -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list
Re: [gentoo-user] Planning for a future crash
IIRC the LiveCD does support ssh. You might have to start the ssh daemon with /etc/init.d/sshd start. Long ago I used it to get the stage 1 tarball from one of my machines to the box that was to be a Gentoo box. Backups: /home/* /etc/* /usr/local/anything you've added here. Seems like I'm missing something but I just shut down my main machine that I use for backups down for the night. On Wednesday 10 December 2003 21:00, you wrote: > Hi, >I built a Gentoo machine for my dad who is located about 350 miles > away. He's been using it for 2 weeks now and is loving it. Cool to see a > 75 year old guy using Mozilla and Evolution. > >I have two drives at his site, one internal and one external. I've > set things up for me to do manual backups of the system to the second > drive. (/etc and /home only for now. - comments on other things I should > be backing up?) Anyway, I now want to figure out how I could rebuild the > machine from here should it ever fail. > >I have no experience in this sort of thing, so the first idea I had > was to use the Live CD if it has sshd enabled and running. If he put it > in and rebooted, would the Live CD allow anyone to log in remotely? > >Will this work? Any other ideas about how I could get ready for when > (not if) this eventually happens? > > Thanks, > Mark -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list
[gentoo-user] Planning for a future crash
Hi, I built a Gentoo machine for my dad who is located about 350 miles away. He's been using it for 2 weeks now and is loving it. Cool to see a 75 year old guy using Mozilla and Evolution. I have two drives at his site, one internal and one external. I've set things up for me to do manual backups of the system to the second drive. (/etc and /home only for now. - comments on other things I should be backing up?) Anyway, I now want to figure out how I could rebuild the machine from here should it ever fail. I have no experience in this sort of thing, so the first idea I had was to use the Live CD if it has sshd enabled and running. If he put it in and rebooted, would the Live CD allow anyone to log in remotely? Will this work? Any other ideas about how I could get ready for when (not if) this eventually happens? Thanks, Mark -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list