In regard to: Re: [OpenIndiana-discuss] What is the recommended way to back...:
The last thing I ever thought I would do was to speak highly of AIX, the Unix with the equivalent of the Windows registry (ODM database), but AIX has a way to back up and restore an existing (configured) system to a new/blank disk.
Same, but I totally agree that 'mksysb' is one of things where AIX has one up on the competition. And mksysb has existed for 20+ years... Mention "bootable tape" to a junior admin these days and watch the expression on their face...
(Scope) creeping out further, can any of the *BSD's or Lunux distro's do a full system restore to blank disk?
The commercial, enterprise backup solution my workplace uses for Windows & Linux ostensibly supports bare metal recovery (BMR), but I've vowed to never even attempt it. Just MHO, but automated installation (jumpstart, kickstart, etc.) + rigorous use of a configuration management system (puppet, ansible, chef, etc.) is the way to go for OS config. It's probably both faster and (almost certainly) safer to do that for OS config than to try recover the entire OS over the top of an install. We do back up the OS, for the one offs or the potential for stuff that someone configures outside of a configuration management system, but I would never use traditional OS backups for a BMR. Tim -- Tim Mooney tim.moo...@ndsu.edu Enterprise Computing & Infrastructure 701-231-1076 (Voice) Room 242-J6, Quentin Burdick Building 701-231-8541 (Fax) North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND 58105-5164 _______________________________________________ openindiana-discuss mailing list openindiana-discuss@openindiana.org http://openindiana.org/mailman/listinfo/openindiana-discuss