Re: [Sisuite-users] Gold Client Image Question

[Mark Wass]

Hi John I had a feeling this is what the response would be. How about this do you think this will work. When I do a getimage from the systemimage server I'll exclude /var/lib/mysql and the /var/log folder. I'll backup the /var/lib/mysql and /var/log to another server in another manner (Currently we use BackupPC) then when we do need to restore an image the image simply will not include the /var/lib/mysql and /var/log. I then would get this data from our backup server (BackupPC) In the event that I wanted to restore an image (because something stuffed up), if the /var/lib/mysql folder is already there on the client and I restore an image that does not include the /var/log/mysql folder then really it should all work OK, is that right? or does the system get reformatted and the image installed again? Thanks Mark John Jolet wrote: you don't want to do a getimage on the golden client.  do that on the systemimager server. you can exclude things, I think that's in /etc/systemimager/systemimager.conf on the server. In my opinion, systemimager is for replicating a working setup, not backing up a running server.  I would be VERY leery of trusting mysql data files backed up via systemimager on a running db.  Of course, if they're not innodb tables, you might get away with it, but if you really want the database consistent in your image, do a prepareclient, run a script to lock all tables for write, do a getimage on your systemimager server, then unlock all your tables. Basically, we shut down mysql on our db golden client, grab the image, then start mysql, then after we've splatted that image on a new server, we once again stop mysql, rsync the data directory across, then start it again.  kinda cumbersome, but works. On Oct 26, 2005, at 8:05 PM, Mark Wass wrote: Hi All I'm looking at implementing SystemImager at my workplace and have a few questions. Q1. I will using Debian with mysql server running on the server, so there will be databases and tables being updated regularly every minute. My question is if you have taken an image of the golden client and the database has changed since the first initial image was taken will this wipe over the top of the existing database files if you do a getimage on the golden client? Q2. What happens to all the log files in /var/log on the client when you do a getimage on a client, do they get copied over also? Q3. Can you exclude certain folders/files from being included in the image that is created from the golden client? I guess what I'm really trying to understand is how does SystemImager handle servers that have files continuously changing e.g. A Database server, when it comes to restoring an image from the SystemImager server. -- Mark Wass