On Sun, May 4, 2008 at 7:12 PM, Mark Knecht <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> On Sun, May 4, 2008 at 8:25 AM, Mark Knecht <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Jil & Neil, > > Thanks for the really great information! I'm going to give this a try > today. > > > > It strikes me that to test my backup I could create a chroot on the > > very system I'm backing up. (Or some other system.) I follow the > > procedure we're outlining here using the install CD and when it's done > > I reboot the system, create a few small partitions in some extra disk > > space, untar the files, chroot into that environment, run some > > commands to test things, and then put the tar'ed files away for safe > > keeping feeling pretty good that everything is where I need it should > > the worst happen. > > > > Again, thanks for the info. I do appreciate it. > > > > Cheers, > > Mark > > > > Hi all, > So I'm working on this and ran into a couple of questions about tar. > > 1) I'm having trouble figuring how to best run tar. I end up with > files at the wrong level every time so far. > > Assume I first mount a partition that's empty, and then mount a > partition I want to save that contains a number of system directories > - /, tmp, etc. lib, mnt and others: > > mount /dev/sda8 /mnt/gentoo [[ This is empty except for a mount > point called TarPoint ]] > cd /mnt/gentoo > mount /dev/sda5 TarPoint [[ The partition I want to backup ]] > > Now I can see all my directories under TarPoint. What's the best way > to run tar, creating a file called SYSTEM.tar.bz2 in /mnt/gentoo, so > that later, when I have an empty partition on a different hard drive > (hda) where I'm going to restore the system, I can do this > > mount /dev/hda11 /mnt/gentoo > cd /mnt/gentoo > scp [EMAIL PROTECTED]:SYSTEM.tar.bz2 . > tar xvfp SYSTEM.tar.bz2 > > and I get the system directory hierarchy back again. > > 2) This laptop is a dual boot machine so the system clock is set to > local when I'm in my Gentoo environment. When I drop into the install > CD I presume it's set to UTC as is the standard. My question has to do > with any requirements to setting time prior to making the tar ball or > untarring to build the environment. > > What I'm seeing is that the command > > tar xcjf SYSTEM.tar.bz2 > > generates lots of messages about file times being in the future. Maybe > this won't matter if I use the backup later than 8 hours from the time > I make it but in the short term will it cause any problems? > > Thanks, > Mark > -- > gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org mailing list > > Look into what's called a "stage 4 backup": http://blinkeye.ch/mediawiki/index.php/GNU/Linux_System_Backup_Script_(stage4) I've had to actually use it once, and it worked fine. It already excludes the appropriate files: /dev /lost+found /mnt /proc /sys /tmp /usr/portage /usr/src /var/log /var/tmp /var/db /var/cache/edb It doesn't back up the MBR or the partition tables (primary or logical), though you could edit the script to do that. -- - Mark Shields
