[BackupPC-users] Bare Metal Restore, Windows 7
Of course, BackupPC is well suited to backup and recovery of individual sets of files rather than complete systems. In the event of hardware media failure, I'd generally take it as an opportunity to start afresh with a new operating system, and recover just the user files. Recently I lost a drive on a system with a large number of proprietary drivers that had been updated over the years, and applying that plus all the necessary software would have been a daunting task, so I simply restored *everything* from BackuPC, following this procedure: http://www.goodjobsucking.com/?p=449 I'm happy to report that it works. While it may not always be an adequate substitute for an image backup, the system is back up and running and virtually indistinguishable from before its drive failed. -- BPM Camp - Free Virtual Workshop May 6th at 10am PDT/1PM EDT Develop your own process in accordance with the BPMN 2 standard Learn Process modeling best practices with Bonita BPM through live exercises http://www.bonitasoft.com/be-part-of-it/events/bpm-camp-virtual- event?utm_ source=Sourceforge_BPM_Camp_5_6_15utm_medium=emailutm_campaign=VA_SF ___ BackupPC-users mailing list BackupPC-users@lists.sourceforge.net List:https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/backuppc-users Wiki:http://backuppc.wiki.sourceforge.net Project: http://backuppc.sourceforge.net/
Re: [BackupPC-users] bare metal restore?
Matthias Meyer wrote: Neal Becker wrote: Carl Wilhelm Soderstrom wrote: On 04/04 07:40 , Neal Becker wrote: Are there instructions for using backuppc for bare metal restore? Probably somewhere. It's fairly straightforward tho. Boot the bare-metal machine with Knoppix (or your choice of rescue disks). Partition and format the drives. Mount the partitions in the arrangement you want. (you'll have to make some directories in order to have mount points). Set up a listening netcat process to pipe to tar. will look something like: netcat -l -p |tar -xpv -C /path/to/mounted/empty/filesystems on the BackupPC server, become the backuppc user (Presuming it's a Debian box) run '/usr/share/backuppc/bin/BackupPC_tarCreate -n backup number -h hostname -s sharename path to files to be restored | netcat bare-metal machine ' the 'backup number' can be '-1' for the most recent version. An example of the BackupPC_tarCreate command might be: /usr/share/backuppc/bin/BackupPC_tarCreate -n -1 -h target.example.com -s / / | netcat target.example.com Thanks. Would there be a similar procedure using rsync? rsync wouldn't be a good solution in this szenario. You don't have any data on the client. So rsync wouldn't find anything to compare with. Because that - other solutions, like tar, are smarter because faster. br Matthias Interesting. I thought that rsync is no worse than using e.g., tar in the case of nothing to compare to. Do you think rsync is actually worse (slower)? -- Xperia(TM) PLAY It's a major breakthrough. An authentic gaming smartphone on the nation's most reliable network. And it wants your games. http://p.sf.net/sfu/verizon-sfdev ___ BackupPC-users mailing list BackupPC-users@lists.sourceforge.net List:https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/backuppc-users Wiki:http://backuppc.wiki.sourceforge.net Project: http://backuppc.sourceforge.net/
Re: [BackupPC-users] bare metal restore?
On Tue, 2011-04-05 at 11:20 -0400, Neal Becker wrote: Interesting. I thought that rsync is no worse than using e.g., tar in the case of nothing to compare to. Do you think rsync is actually worse (slower)? It probably is slightly slower, especially at start. However, if there is little in the target directory it will be reasonably fast. The question is: for bare metal restores, do you care if it completes 5% faster? Is that worth configuring tar methods if you already use rsync? For me, the answer is no. Rsync restores, even of 200 GB hosts, have been nearly as fast as disk and network limitations will allow. Regards, Tyler -- I respect you too much to respect your ridiculous ideas. -- Johann Hari -- Xperia(TM) PLAY It's a major breakthrough. An authentic gaming smartphone on the nation's most reliable network. And it wants your games. http://p.sf.net/sfu/verizon-sfdev ___ BackupPC-users mailing list BackupPC-users@lists.sourceforge.net List:https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/backuppc-users Wiki:http://backuppc.wiki.sourceforge.net Project: http://backuppc.sourceforge.net/
Re: [BackupPC-users] bare metal restore?
On 04/05 11:20 , Neal Becker wrote: Interesting. I thought that rsync is no worse than using e.g., tar in the case of nothing to compare to. Do you think rsync is actually worse (slower)? I've seen cases where rsync was 2x-4x slower than tar, when there was no data to compare to. -- Carl Soderstrom Systems Administrator Real-Time Enterprises www.real-time.com -- Xperia(TM) PLAY It's a major breakthrough. An authentic gaming smartphone on the nation's most reliable network. And it wants your games. http://p.sf.net/sfu/verizon-sfdev ___ BackupPC-users mailing list BackupPC-users@lists.sourceforge.net List:https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/backuppc-users Wiki:http://backuppc.wiki.sourceforge.net Project: http://backuppc.sourceforge.net/
[BackupPC-users] bare metal restore?
Are there instructions for using backuppc for bare metal restore? -- Create and publish websites with WebMatrix Use the most popular FREE web apps or write code yourself; WebMatrix provides all the features you need to develop and publish your website. http://p.sf.net/sfu/ms-webmatrix-sf ___ BackupPC-users mailing list BackupPC-users@lists.sourceforge.net List:https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/backuppc-users Wiki:http://backuppc.wiki.sourceforge.net Project: http://backuppc.sourceforge.net/
Re: [BackupPC-users] bare metal restore?
On 04/04 07:40 , Neal Becker wrote: Are there instructions for using backuppc for bare metal restore? Probably somewhere. It's fairly straightforward tho. Boot the bare-metal machine with Knoppix (or your choice of rescue disks). Partition and format the drives. Mount the partitions in the arrangement you want. (you'll have to make some directories in order to have mount points). Set up a listening netcat process to pipe to tar. will look something like: netcat -l -p |tar -xpv -C /path/to/mounted/empty/filesystems on the BackupPC server, become the backuppc user (Presuming it's a Debian box) run '/usr/share/backuppc/bin/BackupPC_tarCreate -n backup number -h hostname -s sharename path to files to be restored | netcat bare-metal machine ' the 'backup number' can be '-1' for the most recent version. An example of the BackupPC_tarCreate command might be: /usr/share/backuppc/bin/BackupPC_tarCreate -n -1 -h target.example.com -s / / | netcat target.example.com -- Carl Soderstrom Systems Administrator Real-Time Enterprises www.real-time.com -- Create and publish websites with WebMatrix Use the most popular FREE web apps or write code yourself; WebMatrix provides all the features you need to develop and publish your website. http://p.sf.net/sfu/ms-webmatrix-sf ___ BackupPC-users mailing list BackupPC-users@lists.sourceforge.net List:https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/backuppc-users Wiki:http://backuppc.wiki.sourceforge.net Project: http://backuppc.sourceforge.net/
Re: [BackupPC-users] bare metal restore?
Carl Wilhelm Soderstrom wrote: On 04/04 07:40 , Neal Becker wrote: Are there instructions for using backuppc for bare metal restore? Probably somewhere. It's fairly straightforward tho. Boot the bare-metal machine with Knoppix (or your choice of rescue disks). Partition and format the drives. Mount the partitions in the arrangement you want. (you'll have to make some directories in order to have mount points). Set up a listening netcat process to pipe to tar. will look something like: netcat -l -p |tar -xpv -C /path/to/mounted/empty/filesystems on the BackupPC server, become the backuppc user (Presuming it's a Debian box) run '/usr/share/backuppc/bin/BackupPC_tarCreate -n backup number -h hostname -s sharename path to files to be restored | netcat bare-metal machine ' the 'backup number' can be '-1' for the most recent version. An example of the BackupPC_tarCreate command might be: /usr/share/backuppc/bin/BackupPC_tarCreate -n -1 -h target.example.com -s / / | netcat target.example.com Thanks. Would there be a similar procedure using rsync? -- Create and publish websites with WebMatrix Use the most popular FREE web apps or write code yourself; WebMatrix provides all the features you need to develop and publish your website. http://p.sf.net/sfu/ms-webmatrix-sf ___ BackupPC-users mailing list BackupPC-users@lists.sourceforge.net List:https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/backuppc-users Wiki:http://backuppc.wiki.sourceforge.net Project: http://backuppc.sourceforge.net/
Re: [BackupPC-users] bare metal restore?
On 04/04 09:51 , Neal Becker wrote: Would there be a similar procedure using rsync? maybe. never tried it. -- Carl Soderstrom Systems Administrator Real-Time Enterprises www.real-time.com -- Create and publish websites with WebMatrix Use the most popular FREE web apps or write code yourself; WebMatrix provides all the features you need to develop and publish your website. http://p.sf.net/sfu/ms-webmatrix-sf ___ BackupPC-users mailing list BackupPC-users@lists.sourceforge.net List:https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/backuppc-users Wiki:http://backuppc.wiki.sourceforge.net Project: http://backuppc.sourceforge.net/
Re: [BackupPC-users] bare metal restore?
On Mon, 2011-04-04 at 09:51 -0400, Neal Becker wrote: Would there be a similar procedure using rsync? I've done it using the GUI. Bring up the affected machine on a Live CD, run sshd and install the BackupPC root key. Create a mounted filesystem tree in /mnt/, and use the GUI to restore there. Afterward: mount --rbind /dev /mnt/dev mount --rbind /proc /mnt/proc chroot /mnt update-grub grub-install /dev/sda reboot Regards, Tyler -- No one can terrorize a whole nation, unless we are all his accomplices. -- Edward R. Murrow -- Create and publish websites with WebMatrix Use the most popular FREE web apps or write code yourself; WebMatrix provides all the features you need to develop and publish your website. http://p.sf.net/sfu/ms-webmatrix-sf ___ BackupPC-users mailing list BackupPC-users@lists.sourceforge.net List:https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/backuppc-users Wiki:http://backuppc.wiki.sourceforge.net Project: http://backuppc.sourceforge.net/
Re: [BackupPC-users] bare metal restore?
hi, I've written about that on my blog some time ago, its a little how to. just search for backuppc on www.linux-geex.com. cheers pedro On Apr 4, 2011 3:36 PM, Tyler J. Wagner ty...@tolaris.com wrote: On Mon, 2011-04-04 at 09:51 -0400, Neal Becker wrote: Would there be a similar procedure using rsync? I've done it using the GUI. Bring up the affected machine on a Live CD, run sshd and install the BackupPC root key. Create a mounted filesystem tree in /mnt/, and use the GUI to restore there. Afterward: mount --rbind /dev /mnt/dev mount --rbind /proc /mnt/proc chroot /mnt update-grub grub-install /dev/sda reboot Regards, Tyler -- No one can terrorize a whole nation, unless we are all his accomplices. -- Edward R. Murrow -- Create and publish websites with WebMatrix Use the most popular FREE web apps or write code yourself; WebMatrix provides all the features you need to develop and publish your website. http://p.sf.net/sfu/ms-webmatrix-sf ___ BackupPC-users mailing list BackupPC-users@lists.sourceforge.net List: https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/backuppc-users Wiki: http://backuppc.wiki.sourceforge.net Project: http://backuppc.sourceforge.net/ -- Xperia(TM) PLAY It's a major breakthrough. An authentic gaming smartphone on the nation's most reliable network. And it wants your games. http://p.sf.net/sfu/verizon-sfdev___ BackupPC-users mailing list BackupPC-users@lists.sourceforge.net List:https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/backuppc-users Wiki:http://backuppc.wiki.sourceforge.net Project: http://backuppc.sourceforge.net/
Re: [BackupPC-users] bare metal restore?
Neal Becker wrote: Carl Wilhelm Soderstrom wrote: On 04/04 07:40 , Neal Becker wrote: Are there instructions for using backuppc for bare metal restore? Probably somewhere. It's fairly straightforward tho. Boot the bare-metal machine with Knoppix (or your choice of rescue disks). Partition and format the drives. Mount the partitions in the arrangement you want. (you'll have to make some directories in order to have mount points). Set up a listening netcat process to pipe to tar. will look something like: netcat -l -p |tar -xpv -C /path/to/mounted/empty/filesystems on the BackupPC server, become the backuppc user (Presuming it's a Debian box) run '/usr/share/backuppc/bin/BackupPC_tarCreate -n backup number -h hostname -s sharename path to files to be restored | netcat bare-metal machine ' the 'backup number' can be '-1' for the most recent version. An example of the BackupPC_tarCreate command might be: /usr/share/backuppc/bin/BackupPC_tarCreate -n -1 -h target.example.com -s / / | netcat target.example.com Thanks. Would there be a similar procedure using rsync? rsync wouldn't be a good solution in this szenario. You don't have any data on the client. So rsync wouldn't find anything to compare with. Because that - other solutions, like tar, are smarter because faster. br Matthias -- Don't Panic -- Xperia(TM) PLAY It's a major breakthrough. An authentic gaming smartphone on the nation's most reliable network. And it wants your games. http://p.sf.net/sfu/verizon-sfdev ___ BackupPC-users mailing list BackupPC-users@lists.sourceforge.net List:https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/backuppc-users Wiki:http://backuppc.wiki.sourceforge.net Project: http://backuppc.sourceforge.net/
Re: [BackupPC-users] Bare metal restore
Hello Les, free. On linux just use tar and install grub again if it is a boot disk. I managed to resize the partizion on one 80GB HDD, to fit it in a 40GB HDD (did this with GParted Live). Afterwards, I used Clonezilla to clone that partition on my 40GB HDD, but at the boot my system remained stuck with GRUB displayed in the upper left corner... What did I do wrong or what did I miss? Kind regards, Flavio Boniforti PIRAMIDE INFORMATICA SAGL Via Ballerini 21 6600 Locarno Switzerland Phone: +41 91 751 68 81 Fax: +41 91 751 69 14 URL: http://www.piramide.ch E-mail: fla...@piramide.ch -- ___ BackupPC-users mailing list BackupPC-users@lists.sourceforge.net List:https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/backuppc-users Wiki:http://backuppc.wiki.sourceforge.net Project: http://backuppc.sourceforge.net/
Re: [BackupPC-users] Bare metal restore
On Wednesday 12 May 2010 07:11:48 Boniforti Flavio wrote: I managed to resize the partizion on one 80GB HDD, to fit it in a 40GB HDD (did this with GParted Live). Afterwards, I used Clonezilla to clone that partition on my 40GB HDD, but at the boot my system remained stuck with GRUB displayed in the upper left corner... What did I do wrong or what did I miss? Reinstalling grub. Boot that system using the boot first drive feature of any Live CD, and run grub-install. Tyler -- Anyone who slaps a 'this page is best viewed with Browser X' label on a Web page appears to be yearning for the bad old days, before the Web, when you had very little chance of reading a document written on another computer, another word processor, or another network. -- Tim Berners-Lee in Technology Review, July 1996 -- ___ BackupPC-users mailing list BackupPC-users@lists.sourceforge.net List:https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/backuppc-users Wiki:http://backuppc.wiki.sourceforge.net Project: http://backuppc.sourceforge.net/
Re: [BackupPC-users] Bare metal restore
Boniforti Flavio wrote: Hello Les, free. On linux just use tar and install grub again if it is a boot disk. I managed to resize the partizion on one 80GB HDD, to fit it in a 40GB HDD (did this with GParted Live). Afterwards, I used Clonezilla to clone that partition on my 40GB HDD, but at the boot my system remained stuck with GRUB displayed in the upper left corner... What did I do wrong or what did I miss? Grub isn't finding its 2nd stage loader. I usually still install a small /boot partition as the first thing on the disk like you had to back when bios couldn't handle large drives so I don't know if it is sensitive to moving the partition offset when copying or if perhaps clonezilla didn't match a label or something. In any case you can probably fix it by booting a rescue CD and re-installing grub. -- Les Mikesell lesmikes...@gmail.com -- ___ BackupPC-users mailing list BackupPC-users@lists.sourceforge.net List:https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/backuppc-users Wiki:http://backuppc.wiki.sourceforge.net Project: http://backuppc.sourceforge.net/
Re: [BackupPC-users] Bare metal restore
Hy Bob... [cut] Now, for those who will ask detail question about this, I have condensed my description to simplify the answer. My suggestion is that you need to learn about clonezilla live cd and use it to create this bare metal image. I have found this to be a simple solution for my computers. (My daughter's laptop desktop, my wife's company work laptop, as well as my laptop and desktop. BTW, my wife's company IT people what One thing that is missing in Clonezilla is the ability to resize imaged partitions. If my HDD crashes, I tend to buy the most competitive one in terms of price:size ratio. If the disk gets bigger, I guess there would be unpartitioned space left (which would result in unused HDD space). On the other hand, on some servers I need to size down, onto a smaller disk: that's not feasable with Clonezilla, as for now... Any suggestions (without going too much OT)? Eventually also on my email, if it'd be OT. Flavio Boniforti PIRAMIDE INFORMATICA SAGL Via Ballerini 21 6600 Locarno Switzerland Phone: +41 91 751 68 81 Fax: +41 91 751 69 14 URL: http://www.piramide.ch E-mail: fla...@piramide.ch -- ___ BackupPC-users mailing list BackupPC-users@lists.sourceforge.net List:https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/backuppc-users Wiki:http://backuppc.wiki.sourceforge.net Project: http://backuppc.sourceforge.net/
Re: [BackupPC-users] Bare metal restore
Boniforti, You are correct, Clonezilla will not resize a partition. When replacing a hard drive, I usually get a larger capacity drive, restore and then resize it with Gparted on a Knoppix live cd. Bob Wooden Boniforti Flavio wrote: Hy Bob... [cut] My suggestion is that you need to learn about clonezilla live cd and use it to create this bare metal image. One thing that is missing in Clonezilla is the ability to resize imaged partitions. If my HDD crashes, I tend to buy the most competitive one in terms of price:size ratio. If the disk gets bigger, I guess there would be unpartitioned space left (which would result in unused HDD space). On the other hand, on some servers I need to size down, onto a smaller disk: that's not feasable with Clonezilla, as for now... Any suggestions (without going too much OT)? Eventually also on my email, if it'd be OT. Flavio Boniforti -- ___ BackupPC-users mailing list BackupPC-users@lists.sourceforge.net List:https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/backuppc-users Wiki:http://backuppc.wiki.sourceforge.net Project: http://backuppc.sourceforge.net/
Re: [BackupPC-users] Bare metal restore
Boniforti Flavio wrote: Hy Bob... [cut] Now, for those who will ask detail question about this, I have condensed my description to simplify the answer. My suggestion is that you need to learn about clonezilla live cd and use it to create this bare metal image. I have found this to be a simple solution for my computers. (My daughter's laptop desktop, my wife's company work laptop, as well as my laptop and desktop. BTW, my wife's company IT people what One thing that is missing in Clonezilla is the ability to resize imaged partitions. If my HDD crashes, I tend to buy the most competitive one in terms of price:size ratio. If the disk gets bigger, I guess there would be unpartitioned space left (which would result in unused HDD space). On the other hand, on some servers I need to size down, onto a smaller disk: that's not feasable with Clonezilla, as for now... Any suggestions (without going too much OT)? Eventually also on my email, if it'd be OT. Clonezilla can go from smaller to bigger partitions (basically a copy, then resize), but not bigger to smaller. Ghost is probably the best at that for Windows but it's not free. On linux just use tar and install grub again if it is a boot disk. -- Les Mikesell lesmikes...@gmail.com -- ___ BackupPC-users mailing list BackupPC-users@lists.sourceforge.net List:https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/backuppc-users Wiki:http://backuppc.wiki.sourceforge.net Project: http://backuppc.sourceforge.net/
[BackupPC-users] Bare metal restore
Hello list... I was wondering if I may be doing some sort of bare metal restore of a Linux server, if I'd be backing it up *completely* on my backuppc server. What do you think? How may I eventually achieve this sort of imaging from my other server? Thanks, Flavio Boniforti PIRAMIDE INFORMATICA SAGL Via Ballerini 21 6600 Locarno Switzerland Phone: +41 91 751 68 81 Fax: +41 91 751 69 14 URL: http://www.piramide.ch E-mail: fla...@piramide.ch -- ___ BackupPC-users mailing list BackupPC-users@lists.sourceforge.net List:https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/backuppc-users Wiki:http://backuppc.wiki.sourceforge.net Project: http://backuppc.sourceforge.net/
Re: [BackupPC-users] Bare metal restore
On Mon, 10 May 2010 14:02:53 +0200, Boniforti Flavio fla...@piramide.ch wrote: Hello list... I was wondering if I may be doing some sort of bare metal restore of a Linux server, if I'd be backing it up *completely* on my backuppc server. Theoretically, a bare-metal restore should be possible by backing up the entire filesystem. The restore procedure to a new piece of bare-metal would be: 1. Boot from rescue media 2. Partition the new disk and mkfs it 3. Restore the server image to the new disk (either by networked rsync or untar'ing a tarball downloaded from the backuppc restore interface) 4. chroot into the restored disk and install grub (bootloader) 5. exit chroot, unmount new disk and reboot the system In practice though, I've found it takes lots of tries to perfect the above procedure and it's often easier to re-install the base OS and just restore critical config files, application files and data to the box. Bare-metal restores *sound* sexy, but really they're often just not useful. -Josh -- Joshua Malone Systems Administrator (jmal...@nrao.edu)NRAO Charlottesville 434-296-0263 www.cv.nrao.edu 434-249-5699 (mobile) BOFH excuse #360: Your parity check is overdrawn and you're out of cache. -- ___ BackupPC-users mailing list BackupPC-users@lists.sourceforge.net List:https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/backuppc-users Wiki:http://backuppc.wiki.sourceforge.net Project: http://backuppc.sourceforge.net/
Re: [BackupPC-users] Bare metal restore
Some time ago i wrote about thins in my blog, check it out: http://www.linux-geex.com/?s=backuppcx=0y=0#/?p=163 Cheers, Pedro On Monday 10 May 2010 13:02:53 Boniforti Flavio wrote: Hello list... I was wondering if I may be doing some sort of bare metal restore of a Linux server, if I'd be backing it up *completely* on my backuppc server. What do you think? How may I eventually achieve this sort of imaging from my other server? Thanks, Flavio Boniforti PIRAMIDE INFORMATICA SAGL Via Ballerini 21 6600 Locarno Switzerland Phone: +41 91 751 68 81 Fax: +41 91 751 69 14 URL: http://www.piramide.ch E-mail: fla...@piramide.ch -- ___ BackupPC-users mailing list BackupPC-users@lists.sourceforge.net List:https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/backuppc-users Wiki:http://backuppc.wiki.sourceforge.net Project: http://backuppc.sourceforge.net/ -- -- Pedro M. S. Oliveira IT Consultant Email: pmsolive...@gmail.com URL: http://www.linux-geex.com Cellular: +351 96 5867227 -- -- ___ BackupPC-users mailing list BackupPC-users@lists.sourceforge.net List:https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/backuppc-users Wiki:http://backuppc.wiki.sourceforge.net Project: http://backuppc.sourceforge.net/
Re: [BackupPC-users] Bare metal restore
On Monday 10 May 2010 14:02:21 Josh Malone wrote: In practice though, I've found it takes lots of tries to perfect the above procedure and it's often easier to re-install the base OS and just restore critical config files, application files and data to the box. Bare-metal restores *sound* sexy, but really they're often just not useful. I've done lots of bare metal restores with Bacula, BackupPC, and rsync. The process is simple: 1. Install base OS from install media 2. Install backup client (bacula-fd or rsync) 3. Restore The only problem I've found is with files that may be installed with the base OS but which you later removed or uninstalled. These will persist after you restore. For instance, I routinely uninstall sysklogd and install syslog-ng. If I do the above, I'll end up with both packages installed but with the package manager not being aware of sysklogd. The solution is to remember to repeat the install/uninstall before the restore. That's only a problem for Bacula and BackupPC, neither of which have a concept of rsync's --delete option. Perhaps that would work with BackupPC, though. Regards, Tyler -- One of the Fifth Amendment's basic functions is to protect the innocent men who otherwise might be ensnared by ambiguous circumstances. Truthful responses of an innocent witness, as well as those of a wrongdoer, may provide the government incriminating evidence from the speaker's own mouth. -- The Supreme Court of the United States, Ohio v. Reiner, 532 U.S. 17, 20 (2001) -- ___ BackupPC-users mailing list BackupPC-users@lists.sourceforge.net List:https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/backuppc-users Wiki:http://backuppc.wiki.sourceforge.net Project: http://backuppc.sourceforge.net/
Re: [BackupPC-users] Bare metal restore
Hy there... So with that you would restore with BackupEdge and then go into your BackuPC repository to see what is outdated. Much quicker in my setup. Your pay back may be different. I'm not into *buying* a new piece of software, instead I'd really like to achieve bare metal restore with opensource software. Kind regards, Flavio Boniforti PIRAMIDE INFORMATICA SAGL Via Ballerini 21 6600 Locarno Switzerland Phone: +41 91 751 68 81 Fax: +41 91 751 69 14 Url: http://www.piramide.ch E-mail: fla...@piramide.ch -- ___ BackupPC-users mailing list BackupPC-users@lists.sourceforge.net List:https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/backuppc-users Wiki:http://backuppc.wiki.sourceforge.net Project: http://backuppc.sourceforge.net/
Re: [BackupPC-users] Bare metal restore
Hello Joshua Theoretically, a bare-metal restore should be possible by backing up the entire filesystem. The restore procedure to a [cut] In practice though, I've found it takes lots of tries to perfect the above procedure and it's often easier to re-install the base OS and just restore critical config files, application files and data to the box. Bare-metal restores *sound* sexy, but really they're often just not useful. I liked your explanation... ;-) I think I'll be doing *full* backuppc backup of my server as a first step to have constant backups. My thouhgts are related to eventually recovering the situation. As the server I want to back up is barely a squid proxy, I don't have to back up great amounts of data as it would be in case of a backuppc pool itself. What my concern is about, is the fact that when I'd be reinstalling from scratch on a new HDD, how would I get to the same state of installed/not installed packages as it was on its latest useful backup? Is there any way to somehow extract some sort of Sysmte State (like on Windows boxes) to know which packages are installed, and which aren't? Thanks, Flavio Boniforti PIRAMIDE INFORMATICA SAGL Via Ballerini 21 6600 Locarno Switzerland Phone: +41 91 751 68 81 Fax: +41 91 751 69 14 Url: http://www.piramide.ch E-mail: fla...@piramide.ch -- ___ BackupPC-users mailing list BackupPC-users@lists.sourceforge.net List:https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/backuppc-users Wiki:http://backuppc.wiki.sourceforge.net Project: http://backuppc.sourceforge.net/
Re: [BackupPC-users] Bare metal restore
Hy Pedro, Some time ago i wrote about thins in my blog, check it out: http://www.linux-geex.com/?s=backuppcx=0y=0#/?p=163 I read through your post, and it seems interesting and feasable (reading without doing is much more complicated as it may seem when doing it)... Can you thus confirm that your suggested way of recovering *is* working? And, maybe slightly OT: what kind of benefits could I get from switching over to use LVM? Many thanks and kind regards, Flavio Boniforti PIRAMIDE INFORMATICA SAGL Via Ballerini 21 6600 Locarno Switzerland Phone: +41 91 751 68 81 Fax: +41 91 751 69 14 Url: http://www.piramide.ch E-mail: fla...@piramide.ch -- ___ BackupPC-users mailing list BackupPC-users@lists.sourceforge.net List:https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/backuppc-users Wiki:http://backuppc.wiki.sourceforge.net Project: http://backuppc.sourceforge.net/
Re: [BackupPC-users] Bare metal restore
On 5/10/2010 9:14 AM, Boniforti Flavio wrote: Hy there... So with that you would restore with BackupEdge and then go into your BackuPC repository to see what is outdated. Much quicker in my setup. Your pay back may be different. I'm not into *buying* a new piece of software, instead I'd really like to achieve bare metal restore with opensource software. If you know your way around fdisk, mke2fs, and grub, you can boot about any 'live' CD or install disk with rescue mode that lets you bring up the network on the replacement machine. Then you can make similar partitions and filesystens, mount them somewhere into the running system, and ssh a BackupPC_tarCreate command to the backuppc server to generate the tar image(s) you need, piped to a local tar extract. Then make sure that the restored /etc/fstab has the right partition names and re-install grub so the new system will boot. If you want something more automated and can take the system down occasionally, you can use clonezilla to make an image copy of a working system once in a while. It will restore fairly quickly and automatically to similar hardware and you can follow up with a backuppc restore to be completely up to date. -- Les Mikesell lesmikes...@gmail.com -- ___ BackupPC-users mailing list BackupPC-users@lists.sourceforge.net List:https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/backuppc-users Wiki:http://backuppc.wiki.sourceforge.net Project: http://backuppc.sourceforge.net/
Re: [BackupPC-users] Bare metal restore
Hello Les, [cut] extract. Then make sure that the restored /etc/fstab has the right partition names and re-install grub so the new system will boot. That's the *perfect and precise* way of doing that... If you want something more automated and can take the system down occasionally, you can use clonezilla to make an image copy of a working system once in a while. It will restore fairly quickly and automatically to similar hardware and you can follow up with a backuppc restore to be completely up to date. I already know clonezilla, but how would I automate this piece of software to do complete images of my running server? Never knew it could work like that too... Could you explain a bit more? Thanks and kind regards, Flavio Boniforti PIRAMIDE INFORMATICA SAGL Via Ballerini 21 6600 Locarno Switzerland Phone: +41 91 751 68 81 Fax: +41 91 751 69 14 Url: http://www.piramide.ch E-mail: fla...@piramide.ch -- ___ BackupPC-users mailing list BackupPC-users@lists.sourceforge.net List:https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/backuppc-users Wiki:http://backuppc.wiki.sourceforge.net Project: http://backuppc.sourceforge.net/
Re: [BackupPC-users] Bare metal restore
For me, I use a backup client mainly for unique apps and data. Since most of my boxes run Debian, I have pretty much figured out the directories to backup/restore to save the box. I back up the following Debian-related directories: /var/backups /var/cache/apt (less /var/cache/apt/archives) /var/lib/dpkg /var/lib/apt I also have a cron job that writes the drive layout and package list to /var/backups. So my process of bare metal restores is as follows: 1. Do a Debian base install. 2. Restore the packages that were installed prior to the incident, using dpkg --set-selections pkglist ; apt-get dselect-upgrade 3. Set up backuppc user, keys, etc. 4. Restore data partitions from backuppc. This works pretty well for me. I'm sure something similar could be set up with Arch, Fedora/CentOS/Redhat as well. --b On Mon, May 10, 2010 at 10:45 AM, Boniforti Flavio fla...@piramide.chwrote: Hy Pedro, Some time ago i wrote about thins in my blog, check it out: http://www.linux-geex.com/?s=backuppcx=0y=0#/?p=163 I read through your post, and it seems interesting and feasable (reading without doing is much more complicated as it may seem when doing it)... Can you thus confirm that your suggested way of recovering *is* working? And, maybe slightly OT: what kind of benefits could I get from switching over to use LVM? Many thanks and kind regards, Flavio Boniforti PIRAMIDE INFORMATICA SAGL Via Ballerini 21 6600 Locarno Switzerland Phone: +41 91 751 68 81 Fax: +41 91 751 69 14 Url: http://www.piramide.ch E-mail: fla...@piramide.ch -- ___ BackupPC-users mailing list BackupPC-users@lists.sourceforge.net List:https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/backuppc-users Wiki:http://backuppc.wiki.sourceforge.net Project: http://backuppc.sourceforge.net/ -- ___ BackupPC-users mailing list BackupPC-users@lists.sourceforge.net List:https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/backuppc-users Wiki:http://backuppc.wiki.sourceforge.net Project: http://backuppc.sourceforge.net/
Re: [BackupPC-users] Bare metal restore
I would like to just clarify why I do it this way. When I first took this job we did just that. get out the OS disks, rebuild the File Systems, then do a restore from the tapes. It took us an entire day. I also had to rebuild all of my user accounts and printers and shares as the process they had been using called for that. I then used the restore process in the backup software and it went to a two hour job. Also with the ever changing hard drive sizes I could take any new drive that inevitably was much larger than the one that went belly up this software repartioned the drive accordingly for me. Also it essentially is using Tar so in a pinch I could just use tar to read a tape if I wanted. So the driving factor here was my time. Instead of doing all of that work, I could just swap out the drive, insert the media and let it roll. During that time I could do other things that came up. The end result also was peace of mind when a disaster happened. Again this works for me as my systems are non RAID, one drive suystems that could live quite well in a 2gb drive enviroment, but today I can't do that. Sometimes spending a little money up front (in my case $200 a server) and then reaoing the benefit of time and sanity in the other end. Les Mikesell lesmikes...@gmail.com 05/10/10 10:49 AM On 5/10/2010 9:14 AM, Boniforti Flavio wrote: Hy there... So with that you would restore with BackupEdge and then go into your BackuPC repository to see what is outdated. Much quicker in my setup. Your pay back may be different. I'm not into *buying* a new piece of software, instead I'd really like to achieve bare metal restore with opensource software. -- ___ BackupPC-users mailing list BackupPC-users@lists.sourceforge.net List:https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/backuppc-users Wiki:http://backuppc.wiki.sourceforge.net Project: http://backuppc.sourceforge.net/
Re: [BackupPC-users] Bare metal restore
On Mon, 10 May 2010 16:41:16 +0200, Boniforti Flavio fla...@piramide.ch wrote: I liked your explanation... ;-) I think I'll be doing *full* backuppc backup of my server as a first step to have constant backups. My thouhgts are related to eventually recovering the situation. As the server I want to back up is barely a squid proxy, I don't have to back up great amounts of data as it would be in case of a backuppc pool itself. What my concern is about, is the fact that when I'd be reinstalling from scratch on a new HDD, how would I get to the same state of installed/not installed packages as it was on its latest useful backup? Is there any way to somehow extract some sort of Sysmte State (like on Windows boxes) to know which packages are installed, and which aren't? The best way to make sure your OS installs are repeatable and non-deterministic is to script them. Here we use RHEL so we install machines via kickstart. Previously I've used wrapper scripts to 'sysinstall' on FreeBSD and similar for Debian's installer (with lots of help from its author). If you have your OS install procedure automated you never have to worry about bare-metal restores. Just kick off the re-install, then restore the unique data... you can even restore all of /etc to the newly-installed box and it should work (modulo any changes to fstab, ethernet devices, etc...) -Josh -- Joshua Malone Systems Administrator (jmal...@nrao.edu)NRAO Charlottesville 434-296-0263 www.cv.nrao.edu 434-249-5699 (mobile) BOFH excuse #360: Your parity check is overdrawn and you're out of cache. -- ___ BackupPC-users mailing list BackupPC-users@lists.sourceforge.net List:https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/backuppc-users Wiki:http://backuppc.wiki.sourceforge.net Project: http://backuppc.sourceforge.net/
Re: [BackupPC-users] Bare metal restore
On 5/10/2010 9:59 AM, Boniforti Flavio wrote: extract. Then make sure that the restored /etc/fstab has the right partition names and re-install grub so the new system will boot. That's the *perfect and precise* way of doing that... Basically, if you know how you would restore with tar, you can do the same with the BackupPC_tarCreate output. If you want something more automated and can take the system down occasionally, you can use clonezilla to make an image copy of a working system once in a while. It will restore fairly quickly and automatically to similar hardware and you can follow up with a backuppc restore to be completely up to date. I already know clonezilla, but how would I automate this piece of software to do complete images of my running server? Never knew it could work like that too... Could you explain a bit more? I don't know how to automate it, but I'm sure it would be possible if you had an alternate boot and could tweak the default grub setting to flip to it, make the copy, then flip back. Doing it manually you can just boot from CD or USB disk, connect to the image storage location via nfs, smb, or ssh, and do a whole-disk save. The corresponding restore will create the matching filesystems and fix grub for you. I'm not sure it is worth the trouble on Linux where you can work with the tar output, but it is handy to get a windows system back to a point where backuppc works again - and it is fairly fast since it only saves the used portions of the disk. -- Les Mikesell lesmikes...@gmail.com -- ___ BackupPC-users mailing list BackupPC-users@lists.sourceforge.net List:https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/backuppc-users Wiki:http://backuppc.wiki.sourceforge.net Project: http://backuppc.sourceforge.net/
Re: [BackupPC-users] Bare metal restore
For what it might be worth, I will add my two cents . . . . . I have a very simplistic view of the backup process. First, I have BackupPC running for weekly full backups and nightly incremental backups. Also, every Sunday morning, I go to each computer with a current version of Clonezilla live cd. This creates my bare metal backup option for me. The Clonezilla backup image is pushed via ssh to my backuppc/ssh file server. Should I have a catastrophic hardware failure (we all do some times) I have a clonezilla image from the previous Sunday morning to automatically (for the most part) re-create the machine on a new hard drive (my last hardware failure situation.) Then, depending on what day of week it is, I can restore the remainder with BackupPC. Now, for those who will ask detail question about this, I have condensed my description to simplify the answer. My suggestion is that you need to learn about clonezilla live cd and use it to create this bare metal image. I have found this to be a simple solution for my computers. (My daughter's laptop desktop, my wife's company work laptop, as well as my laptop and desktop. BTW, my wife's company IT people what me to tell them how I can backup her laptop without loading any software onto it, company policy and all. When I mentioned 'live cd' the IT people said, ok, no problem.) -- Bob Wooden Nashville, TN Enjoying life at my best! -- ___ BackupPC-users mailing list BackupPC-users@lists.sourceforge.net List:https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/backuppc-users Wiki:http://backuppc.wiki.sourceforge.net Project: http://backuppc.sourceforge.net/
Re: [BackupPC-users] Bare metal restore
Am 10.05.2010 16:41, schrieb Boniforti Flavio: Hello Joshua What my concern is about, is the fact that when I'd be reinstalling from scratch on a new HDD, how would I get to the same state of installed/not installed packages as it was on its latest useful backup? Is there any way to somehow extract some sort of Sysmte State (like on Windows boxes) to know which packages are installed, and which aren't? Under Debian, a '$sshPath -q -x -l root $host /usr/bin/dpkg --get-selections /root/selections.txt' in the DumpPreUserCmd works wonders. Other package managers may have something similar. Of course, you need access to this file prior to restoring the data in order to be able to re-install your packages on a basic OS installation (this will be along the lines of 'dpkg --set-selections /root/selections.txt' under Debian). Regards Stefan Peter -- ___ BackupPC-users mailing list BackupPC-users@lists.sourceforge.net List:https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/backuppc-users Wiki:http://backuppc.wiki.sourceforge.net Project: http://backuppc.sourceforge.net/
Re: [BackupPC-users] Bare metal restore
On 5/10/2010 10:25 AM, Josh Malone wrote: I liked your explanation... ;-) I think I'll be doing *full* backuppc backup of my server as a first step to have constant backups. My thouhgts are related to eventually recovering the situation. As the server I want to back up is barely a squid proxy, I don't have to back up great amounts of data as it would be in case of a backuppc pool itself. What my concern is about, is the fact that when I'd be reinstalling from scratch on a new HDD, how would I get to the same state of installed/not installed packages as it was on its latest useful backup? Is there any way to somehow extract some sort of Sysmte State (like on Windows boxes) to know which packages are installed, and which aren't? This is up to the distribution's package manager. Fedora/RH/Centos/SuSE use rpm, so if you've backed up the rpm database you'll have it in the restore (and you have to be sure that you've backed up enough of the system that the content of the installed packages match the database). The best way to make sure your OS installs are repeatable and non-deterministic is to script them. This is a good idea, but more than doubles the amount of work you have to do to maintain a system. For a single-purpose server or something you re-use over a large farm it is probably a win. Here we use RHEL so we install machines via kickstart. Previously I've used wrapper scripts to 'sysinstall' on FreeBSD and similar for Debian's installer (with lots of help from its author). If you have your OS install procedure automated you never have to worry about bare-metal restores. Just kick off the re-install, then restore the unique data... you can even restore all of /etc to the newly-installed box and it should work (modulo any changes to fstab, ethernet devices, etc...) For the above-mentioned squid probably all you really need is a copy of the squid.conf file dropped on top of a new install, but if there are intertwined authentication and iptables settings or helper scripts things can get messy. -- Les Mikesell lesmikes...@gmail.com -- ___ BackupPC-users mailing list BackupPC-users@lists.sourceforge.net List:https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/backuppc-users Wiki:http://backuppc.wiki.sourceforge.net Project: http://backuppc.sourceforge.net/
Re: [BackupPC-users] Bare Metal Restore for Microsoft Windows XP
On Sat, 6 Mar 2010, Michael Stowe wrote: Out of necessity, I had an opportunity to try out restoring a system from scratch with nothing but BackupPC backups. I'm happy to report that the process works, with a few limitations and quirks. I've documented it here: http://www.goodjobsucking.com/?p=219 How does this handle ACL's and file owernship and permissions and the like? Mike Not ... wonderfully. On the plus side, it does seem to handle the read only flag, but it seems to lose the system and hidden flags. As for ownership and permissions, I'm afraid I can't be certain. On the one hand, they *seem* fine, but I'm not sure if that's because they were preserved or if that happens to be the default. I'm not doing anything fancy with either. -- Download Intel#174; Parallel Studio Eval Try the new software tools for yourself. Speed compiling, find bugs proactively, and fine-tune applications for parallel performance. See why Intel Parallel Studio got high marks during beta. http://p.sf.net/sfu/intel-sw-dev ___ BackupPC-users mailing list BackupPC-users@lists.sourceforge.net List:https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/backuppc-users Wiki:http://backuppc.wiki.sourceforge.net Project: http://backuppc.sourceforge.net/
Re: [BackupPC-users] Bare Metal Restore for Microsoft Windows XP
Although I haven't tested it on a bare metal restore, I believe that my code that runs subinacl (and also optionally getfacl) to back up the Windows ACL's should take care of all file ownership, permissions, and ACLs (note that 'getfacl' only captures a subset of the full Windows acl's). Does this happen to include the hidden and system attributes? Of course, beyond that there are other potential NTFS 'features' that might not get restored such as junctions, alternative data streams, etc. -- though typically they are rare in WinXP. In theory, junctions would be recreated by any hard links in the tar file, though I didn't have any reason to try it out. Thanks for the write-up - very helpful! Couple of questions: 1. Once you have installed cygwin, why not just use rsync to restore rather than first creating a tar archive? The main reason is those three hardcoded directory paths -- chiefly C:\WINDOWS, which tends to have a lot of open files that cannot be overwritten. I suppose you could restore those three directories to alternative locations, but in my experimenting, rsync would throw errors and stop working, I'm not sure why. 2. Is the Recovery Console approach necessary? I believe that WinXP Home bundled by a lot of hardware vendors doesn't include it. Couldn't you just restore a bare-bones configuration, boot it up and then proceed as you did It's included on every XP CD that I'm aware of, including Home, but it does need to be either installed (for OEM versions, from the \i386 directory) or booted from (some vendors place it on a recovery or tools partition.) It's necessary in that I know no other way to replace the windows directory. 3. Can you explain the reason for set AllowWildCards = TRUE? Also, more generally, what if anything is the advantage of using the MS shell to rename rather than just using cygwin 'mv'? Does 'ren' do a better job with setting default ACL's. Err... Whoops, that was supposed to read set AllowAllPaths = TRUE not WildCards, which doesn't do a lot. It's required only because otherwise, the Recovery Console won't let you do anything outside \WINDOWS. 4. How are you able to rename for example the WINDOWS directory since it presumably has open files? (or is this the reason and rationale behind using the recovery console) That's exactly the reason behind using the Recovery Console. 5. At what point in the process did you restore the registry or did you just treat them as regular files that are part of your backuppc backup? The registry was backed up as regular files using Volume Shadow Copies, and restored as regular files into the same locations. Switching the \WINDOWS directories switched the registry, as well as all related files. 6. Rather than installing cygwin, using the Recovery console etc., would it be faster/simpler/safer to boot from a Linux cd/dvd (after creating the minimalist system install) and then from linux restore the backuppc shares and rename the directories. Then you could boot back up (hopefully) in Windows and run subinacl if you want to make sure the acls's are all correct. I did try this, and it didn't work -- in my case, because Linux didn't happen to recognize my controller card, or its metadata for the mirror -- and when I tried it on another system, for reasons I'm uncertain of, it threw errors with the tar file for some paths, and choked on symbolic links. Due to the driver issues, I didn't pursue it further. (I had hoped for something relatively simple, like booting to a LiveCD, mounting the drives using ntfs-3g, and simply rsync'ing the latest recovery; I assume this is probably possible with the right tweaking and drivers.) Thanks again for sharing your experiences... -- Download Intel#174; Parallel Studio Eval Try the new software tools for yourself. Speed compiling, find bugs proactively, and fine-tune applications for parallel performance. See why Intel Parallel Studio got high marks during beta. http://p.sf.net/sfu/intel-sw-dev ___ BackupPC-users mailing list BackupPC-users@lists.sourceforge.net List:https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/backuppc-users Wiki:http://backuppc.wiki.sourceforge.net Project: http://backuppc.sourceforge.net/
Re: [BackupPC-users] Bare Metal Restore for Microsoft Windows XP
Perhaps I missed something in reading this, or my interpretation of a 'bare metal restore' is different from yours. My definition of 'bare metal restore' is taking essentially an image of the current disk, copying it to some media, and then using that image to do a bit-by-bit (sector-by-sector, track-by-track) copy from the backup medium to the target medium. For me, the bit by bit copy is primary for the OS, and possibly including the application programs (word, ppoint, etc.) I don't buy into the M$ organization of files and disks. I partition my hd for OS, Applications, and User Data. I baremetal restore the OS partition and usually the Application partition using Acronis True Image. (True Image is more or less functionally equivalent to Norton Ghost-the enterprise version, not the butched commercial version they have sold in stores since V9 (I think)). I store the images on a NAS that is backed up. I do restores in one of two ways: Use the restore CD that Acronis allows you to make-bareboot the machine, the pull the image from a server, or, netboot the machine, and using an image loader, pull the restore image from the server and put it on the HD. Once the target machine is capable of booting the newly restored image, you can run backup pc (which I gave up on some time ago) or whatever your favorite backup program is, and copy the backed up user data area to the target HD. In your writeup, you talk about reinstalling windows just to get a working copy of the OS if anything’s installed or working, you’re going to wipe it all out anyway so why essentially do the install twice? Your method does allow for the most recent (more or less) snapshot of most of the relevant windoz files but doing an image every so often would essentially do the same thing. In many cases, it may actually be better to install a clean load image of the OS and apps, rather than restore something that may be corrupted/virus infected. In systems where I have this concern, I have an image of a clean xp + backup program restore that I use. It is all done over the net, minimal (if any) manual intervention at the target machine. If need be, I can also remove the target HD, connect it to the NAS, then copy the image directly via the SATA/IDE interface, then put the disk back in the target machine. Sorry, but I don't see how this method is a baremetal restore with a manual step in installing windoz. Your still screwing around with loading via CD a copy of XP, and then cgwin, and then 'manually copying' files in the XP subdirectories. Seems like a lot of places for things to fall through the cracks with file contents not being 'in synch' and I also wonder about registry consistency and backup. It may, however, work fine in your environment. -J On Sat, Mar 6, 2010 at 1:08 AM, Michael Stowe mst...@chicago.us.mensa.orgwrote: Out of necessity, I had an opportunity to try out restoring a system from scratch with nothing but BackupPC backups. I'm happy to report that the process works, with a few limitations and quirks. I've documented it here: http://www.goodjobsucking.com/?p=219 -- Download Intel#174; Parallel Studio Eval Try the new software tools for yourself. Speed compiling, find bugs proactively, and fine-tune applications for parallel performance. See why Intel Parallel Studio got high marks during beta. http://p.sf.net/sfu/intel-sw-dev ___ BackupPC-users mailing list BackupPC-users@lists.sourceforge.net List:https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/backuppc-users Wiki:http://backuppc.wiki.sourceforge.net Project: http://backuppc.sourceforge.net/ -- Download Intel#174; Parallel Studio Eval Try the new software tools for yourself. Speed compiling, find bugs proactively, and fine-tune applications for parallel performance. See why Intel Parallel Studio got high marks during beta. http://p.sf.net/sfu/intel-sw-dev___ BackupPC-users mailing list BackupPC-users@lists.sourceforge.net List:https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/backuppc-users Wiki:http://backuppc.wiki.sourceforge.net Project: http://backuppc.sourceforge.net/
Re: [BackupPC-users] Bare Metal Restore for Microsoft Windows XP
Perhaps I missed something in reading this, or my interpretation of a 'bare metal restore' is different from yours. I use the term bare metal in the sense that when the process is started, there is no software or operating system installed. In other words, I'm talking about the system being bare metal, not BackupPC being a bare metal restore imaging program. My definition of 'bare metal restore' is taking essentially an image of the current disk, copying it to some media, and then using that image to do a bit-by-bit (sector-by-sector, track-by-track) copy from the backup medium to the target medium. For me, the bit by bit copy is primary for the OS, and possibly including the application programs (word, ppoint, etc.) I don't buy into the M$ organization of files and disks. I partition my hd for OS, Applications, and User Data. I baremetal restore the OS partition and usually the Application partition using Acronis True Image. (True Image is more or less functionally equivalent to Norton Ghost-the enterprise version, not the butched commercial version they have sold in stores since V9 (I think)). I store the images on a NAS that is backed up. I do restores in one of two ways: Use the restore CD that Acronis allows you to make-bareboot the machine, the pull the image from a server, or, netboot the machine, and using an image loader, pull the restore image from the server and put it on the HD. Once the target machine is capable of booting the newly restored image, you can run backup pc (which I gave up on some time ago) or whatever your favorite backup program is, and copy the backed up user data area to the target HD. I'm not really advocating that people start *planning* on recovering full operating systems using nothing but BackupPC, I'm only suggesting that it's possible if that's all you happen to have. In your writeup, you talk about reinstalling windows just to get a working copy of the OS if anythings installed or working, youre going to wipe it all out anyway so why essentially do the install twice? 1) Because BackupPC doesn't have a LiveCD that does recoveries 2) Because Windows XP has never had a LiveCD 3) Because you still need boot sectors, even if either 1 or 2 were true The technique as outlined does allow you to recover on pretty much any hardware that Microsoft XP supports, which includes raid cards, proprietary metadata and exotic controllers. Note that the entire registry is recovered as well. Your method does allow for the most recent (more or less) snapshot of most of the relevant windoz files but doing an image every so often would essentially do the same thing. To clarify a bit: it allows for 100% of the files to be recovered, but permissions/owners/flags are not fully preserved. In many cases, it may actually be better to install a clean load image of the OS and apps, rather than restore something that may be corrupted/virus infected. I'm also not advocating this recovery method in all cases (obviously.) In systems where I have this concern, I have an image of a clean xp + backup program restore that I use. It is all done over the net, minimal (if any) manual intervention at the target machine. If need be, I can also remove the target HD, connect it to the NAS, then copy the image directly via the SATA/IDE interface, then put the disk back in the target machine. I have something similar, it's just not always the best choice. Note that I've also documented extracting specific registry keys from BackupPC backups in cases where you need to retrieve, for example, an installation key. Sorry, but I don't see how this method is a baremetal restore with a manual step in installing windoz. Your still screwing around with loading via CD a copy of XP, and then cgwin, and then 'manually copying' files in the XP subdirectories. Seems like a lot of places for things to fall through the cracks with file contents not being 'in synch' and I also wonder about registry consistency and backup. As I mentioned, one starts with bare metal -- it's not an unattended bare metal restore. As I documented, there are three directories that need to be renamed (six if you count the ones you're replacing.) The registry is perfectly intact and consistent; naturally this requires one of the rsync/VSS methods that have been outlined here before. As, frankly, is every other file, which includes databases, Outlook, and so on. (It does highlight the need to use rsync/VSS and not just use rsync or SMB.) It may, however, work fine in your environment. -J I expect it to work as documented in anybody's environment, with the quirks and limitations outlined. Whether or not somebody can live with that certainly depends on their environment. As I've mentioned, I don't think I'd plan on this being my only recovery method, but it's worth documenting because it does actually work, and I've been around long enough to know that it's not unusual for
Re: [BackupPC-users] Bare Metal Restore for Microsoft Windows XP
Michael Stowe wrote at about 15:00:06 -0600 on Monday, March 8, 2010: Your method does allow for the most recent (more or less) snapshot of most of the relevant windoz files but doing an image every so often would essentially do the same thing. To clarify a bit: it allows for 100% of the files to be recovered, but permissions/owners/flags are not fully preserved. Technically, it allows for 100% of the files to be recovered that cygwin rsync/tar or smb can see. There are ntfs files that won't be recovered such as NTFS alternate data streams (the data will actually be *lost* since cygwin explicitly doesn't handle such non-POSIX files). Also, junctions won't necessarily be recovered (though in many/most cases at least one copy of the data will be somewhere else on the system) Sorry for the nit-picking ;) -- Download Intel#174; Parallel Studio Eval Try the new software tools for yourself. Speed compiling, find bugs proactively, and fine-tune applications for parallel performance. See why Intel Parallel Studio got high marks during beta. http://p.sf.net/sfu/intel-sw-dev ___ BackupPC-users mailing list BackupPC-users@lists.sourceforge.net List:https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/backuppc-users Wiki:http://backuppc.wiki.sourceforge.net Project: http://backuppc.sourceforge.net/
Re: [BackupPC-users] Bare Metal Restore for Microsoft Windows XP
Michael Stowe wrote at about 15:00:06 -0600 on Monday, March 8, 2010: Your method does allow for the most recent (more or less) snapshot of most of the relevant windoz files but doing an image every so often would essentially do the same thing. To clarify a bit: it allows for 100% of the files to be recovered, but permissions/owners/flags are not fully preserved. Technically, it allows for 100% of the files to be recovered that cygwin rsync/tar or smb can see. There are ntfs files that won't be recovered such as NTFS alternate data streams (the data will actually be *lost* since cygwin explicitly doesn't handle such non-POSIX files). Also, junctions won't necessarily be recovered (though in many/most cases at least one copy of the data will be somewhere else on the system) Sorry for the nit-picking ;) You're quite correct, and I forgot all about them. In XP, I -think- they contain thumbnails, author and title attributes, and whether files were downloaded from the Internet. A quick check demonstrates that zip files that were downloaded and backed up are no longer marked as such after the recovery, but the files have the exact same md5 sum (indicating that only the main fork is considered.) Of course, they can also be created manually as well, though I'm not aware of any software that makes use of them for legitimate purposes. (I'm aware of a few viruses that use them to hide chunks of code.) I guess it's not a big deal for my XP systems, but I suspect this could be a big problem... I'm not sure if Microsoft has increased the use of ADS for Vista and Windows 7. I did make a quick test for junctions, and they -appear- to work, but this might just be reflexive since I used a cygwin hard link to create the junction in the first place. -- Download Intel#174; Parallel Studio Eval Try the new software tools for yourself. Speed compiling, find bugs proactively, and fine-tune applications for parallel performance. See why Intel Parallel Studio got high marks during beta. http://p.sf.net/sfu/intel-sw-dev ___ BackupPC-users mailing list BackupPC-users@lists.sourceforge.net List:https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/backuppc-users Wiki:http://backuppc.wiki.sourceforge.net Project: http://backuppc.sourceforge.net/
[BackupPC-users] Bare Metal Restore for Microsoft Windows XP
Out of necessity, I had an opportunity to try out restoring a system from scratch with nothing but BackupPC backups. I'm happy to report that the process works, with a few limitations and quirks. I've documented it here: http://www.goodjobsucking.com/?p=219 -- Download Intel#174; Parallel Studio Eval Try the new software tools for yourself. Speed compiling, find bugs proactively, and fine-tune applications for parallel performance. See why Intel Parallel Studio got high marks during beta. http://p.sf.net/sfu/intel-sw-dev ___ BackupPC-users mailing list BackupPC-users@lists.sourceforge.net List:https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/backuppc-users Wiki:http://backuppc.wiki.sourceforge.net Project: http://backuppc.sourceforge.net/
