1) It does not make sense to me. The next crash is not likely to take out this particular file, or any other file you thought to write to the spool. This is why you need a good backup.
2) Don't bother. 3) The better way is to backup your system. I hope I don't sound harsh, however there is no substitute for a backup of the system. -----Original Message----- From: Linux on 390 Port [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Mike Walter Sent: Thursday, May 29, 2008 2:50 PM To: [email protected] Subject: fstab and other small, critical file recoveries At one point one of our "zLinux" (marketing and politically incorrect) Proof of Concept servers suffered some form of filesystem corruption. The fstab was severely wounded, requiring that it be manually rebuilt by hand. During the rebuild period, the server was out of commission. Since the fstab is so critical to boot a Linux server, I can't help but wonder if it would make sense to display the fstab (and perhaps some other critical, but not too large) files to the VM SPOOLed console log upon successful completion of each boot. That way, if the critical files are corrupt at one boot time, one only needs to look back through the VM console log (which requires no perhaps-unavailable Linux server tools) for the previous successful boot. (I am intentionally avoiding Linux's own syslog as a review/copy source since it may not be available if something critical had been corrupted). At that point one could compare what's in the current/corrupted file to the last good copy from the last good console log, and with fix the bad file, or copy/paste the entire good file in place of the bad one (hence the need for the "critical" files to be relatively short). So... the questions are: 1) Does that make sense to do? 2) What's the best way to echo/cat the critical files to the VM SPOOLed console log after every successful boot? 3) Is there a better way (without access to file-level backups, which we don't have yet during a P.O.C.)? Mike Walter Hewitt Associates Any opinions expressed herein are mine alone and do not necessarily represent the opinions or policies of Hewitt Associates. The information contained in this e-mail and any accompanying documents may contain information that is confidential or otherwise protected from disclosure. If you are not the intended recipient of this message, or if this message has been addressed to you in error, please immediately alert the sender by reply e-mail and then delete this message, including any attachments. Any dissemination, distribution or other use of the contents of this message by anyone other than the intended recipient is strictly prohibited. All messages sent to and from this e-mail address may be monitored as permitted by applicable law and regulations to ensure compliance with our internal policies and to protect our business. E-mails are not secure and cannot be guaranteed to be error free as they can be intercepted, amended, lost or destroyed, or contain viruses. You are deemed to have accepted these risks if you communicate with us by e-mail. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For LINUX-390 subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: INFO LINUX-390 or visit http://www.marist.edu/htbin/wlvindex?LINUX-390 __________________________________________________________________________________________________ CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: This email from the State of California is for the sole use of the intended recipient and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review or use, including disclosure or distribution, is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender and destroy all copies of this email. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For LINUX-390 subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: INFO LINUX-390 or visit http://www.marist.edu/htbin/wlvindex?LINUX-390
