On Wed, Dec 17, 2008 at 05:16:21PM -0500, Norman Bird wrote:
> I'm looking for recommendations that are simply that will allow me to back
> up the image of my Debian Etch box. I will store on windows box connected
> via samba. i just want to be able to create the image, store on external HD
> on windows box, or on external HD I can attach to Debian server is even
> better. I have a 300 GB external HD available for it.
>
> I have been looking into it but like G4l is confusing in it's application.
> the CD?DVD can only backup to the limit of the DVD....stuff like that is
> wierd. then there is clonezilla which had it's problems too.
>
> If someone can suggest a way/method or product they know will work with no
> problems for what I mentioned that my need is? If you mention a product,
> can you point to the exact way to use it, be it a site or tutorial?
What is the purpose of the image? If you just need to backup the box so
that you can reinstall on new hardware (bare-metal install) and get
up-and-running, just use simple backup software.
Here's what I do (I'm on dialup).
1. backup to tarballs:
/etc
/home
/usr/local
/var/local (except /var/local/backup which is where the backups
live until copied to something else).
any other directories depending on the box. e.g. one amd64 box
has an i386 chroot under /srv, so I have a srv.tgz backup.
2. backup to plain text:
selections from /etc including fstab, inittab, networks.
output of sfdisk (hard drive partitions) which can be fed
back to sfdisk to fix a busted partition table
output of aptitude search '~i !~A' which means all installed
packages which are not automatically installed.
3. I use apt-cacher, so I create a CD of all the debs in the cache.
To restore, once apt-cacher is installed, just plunk them in the
import directory and import them. Until then, you can plunk
them in apt's cache.
4. A working Etch binary-1.iso CD.
5. A working Etch installer hd-image on USB stick, with the
CD-1.iso file on it.
With this, I can (and just recently did) a bare-metal install on new
hardware in under 2 hrs. Get the base system setup as you want, install
the packages, then fix /etc, then restore the other directoris.
If you're using an external hard drive, I'd boot the installer and
ensure that you can mount it from the shell there so that you can access
the plain-text files. Presumably you'd be able to mount it from the
newly installed system to effect the restore.
As far as I know, Debian doesn't have an installer feature like
OpenBSD's where you can boot the installer, set up the disk partitions,
and run restore right from there (from tape, presumably a raw drive
partition as well, I don't know).
Good luck.
Doug.
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