Topic: backup from Web manager probs

[Barry Rogers]

I have tried to backup the Server from the selection 'Miscellaneous - Backup or restore'.
Once this selection is clicked, I get the 'please wait' Web page and the Server HDD starts doing lots of something as indicated by the access light...
After about 3-4 minutes, I get 'this page contains no data, etc...' dialog box appear on the workstation, the server stops the HDD access and I get nothing else.
I have rebooted the Server and also looked for a timeout setting on both IE and Netscape to wait longer for the Server to respond, to no avail.

What can I do to backup the Server? What is happening here and why the long wait?

Thanks.

[Jason Miller]

Just for clarification sake, this is a 4.0 or a 4.0.1 installation?

Is this from the first screen?  i.e. Where you choose 'Backup'/'Restore'. Or the second screen? Where you would be asked to choose a file location?

Your description sounds like the former, where you have selected 'Backup' and then it waits before showing the next screen.  Which has no calculations or anything, so it shouldn't be timing out at all.  If anything should - and it shouldn't - then it would be after choosing to do the backup (over the network) because that is when it actually starts to perform.  It does, however need to calculate the size of the backup.  Any idea how much data is on there?

If you can login to the server as user 'root', trying typing:

rpm -V e-smith-base

What results do you get?

Regards,

Jay

[Barry Rogers]

Sorry about that, the version is 4.0 and yes, I am on the initial screen, as
the browser times out waiting for a response from the Server, which never
comes and I do not get to the next screen to select the workstation to load
onto.

Total disk size is 7.47Gb, with 5.96Gb free. This is from a W98 workstation,
so I do not know how it handles software, User directories, etc.. in this
figure. Will give you some indication though.

I did the rpm -V-e-smith-base, the results are...
.M......    /etc/e-smith
.M......    /etc/e-smith/events
.M......    /etc/e-smith/events/actions
.M......    /etc/e-smith/events/console-save
.M......    /etc/e-smith/events/ip-change
.M......    /etc/e-smith/templates
.M......    /etc/e-smith/templates/etc
.M......    /etc/e-smith/templates/etc/inittab

The last thing I was trying to do over 2 weeks ago, was to get the Telstra
Bigpond cable to work on the e-Smith.  I tried all combinations of software
and configurations and still could not get it to work... So I gave up on it
for now.

Thanks for the help.

Barry Rogers

[Gordon Rowell]

Barry Rogers wrote:

> [...]
> The last thing I was trying to do over 2 weeks ago, was to
> get the Telstra Bigpond cable to work on the e-Smith.
> I tried all combinations of software and configurations and
> still could not get it to work... So I gave up on it for now.

It works just fine - I rolled a new version of e-smith-bpalogin
today to tidy things up a little more.

At ftp://ftp.e-smith.org/pub/e-smith/contrib you will find
these two RPMs:

CharlieBrady/RPMS/i386-RH6.2/bpalogin-1.3-2.i386.rpm
GordonRowell/RPMS/noarch/e-smith-bpalogin-1.1.0-02.noarch.rpm

Install them in that order, and then follow the instructions
from the second one, which are:

This version relies on the following configuration database variables:
    DialupUserAccount
    DialupUserPassword

The simplest way to use this module is:

- Install it
   rpm -ivh e-smith-bpalogin-
- Use the e-smith console to configure the external interface:
    - Select PPPoE
      - Enter your BPA username (just the username, not
   the domain)
      - Enter your BPA password
      - These values are used by bpalogin, but BPA does not
   use PPPoE
    - Select to the external interface configuration
    - Select "DHCP - send Ethernet address"
    - Press to accept all further values and save
   configuration
- Check /var/log/messages for messages with the string "bpalogin"

Gordon

[Barry Rogers]

I installed the 2 packages, no problems there.
I changed the user and password in the /etc/bpalogin.conf file,
still nothing.
tried swapping the NICs around, nothing.
one time I actually saw a DHCP_ACK from some server at Telstra and got excited, still nothing.
I cannot get out to the network...
What am I doing wrong?

Thanks

[Gordon Rowell]

Barry Rogers wrote:
>
> I installed the 2 packages, no problems there.
> I changed the user and password in the /etc/bpalogin.conf file,
> still nothing.

You don't need to edit bpalogin.conf - that's what the second
RPM does automatically.

> tried swapping the NICs around, nothing.
> one time I actually saw a DHCP_ACK from some server at
> Telstra and got excited, still nothing.
> I cannot get out to the network...
> What am I doing wrong?

Did you go to the console and configure for PPPoE and then
reconfigure for "DHCP - send hostname"? If you do this and
then go to the end of the console to "Activate Changes", you
should have a correct bpalogin.conf and appropriate entries
to start bpalogin from init.

Gordon

[Barry Rogers]

I do not have a selection of PPPoE on the console. Are you talking about V4.1.1? I am on V4.0.1.
I cannot get from V4.0.1 to V4.1.1 as I cannot backup correctly, which was the reason I posted the original message in the 1st place. You were kind enough to pick up on the BPA problem I am having as well.
The backup problem has not been resolved yet, so I'm stuck on V4.0.1 for now. Does this present problems?
Therefore, if I do not configure /etc/bpalogin.conf manually, the console and the last .rpm package cannot do this for me. That is why I had to get into it and try to do it manually.

Thanks for your continued attention to this matter.

[Gordon Rowell]

Barry Rogers wrote:
>
> I do not have a selection of PPPoE on the console. Are you
> talking about V4.1.1? I am on V4.0.1.

Yes - 4.1.1

> I cannot get from V4.0.1 to V4.1.1 as I cannot backup
> correctly, which was the reason I posted the original message
> in the 1st place. You were kind enough to pick up on the BPA
> problem I am having as well.

I left the backup/restore problem alone as that had already
been picked up on. We provide unlimited technical support to
our registered customers, but, as you can understand, we
can't guarantee any answers to unsupported customers.

You can do an in-place upgrade from 4.0.1 to 4.1.1

> The backup problem has not been resolved yet, so I'm stuck on
> V4.0.1 for now. Does this present problems?

No, just some more manual steps required.

> Therefore, if I do not configure /etc/bpalogin.conf manually,
> the console and the last .rpm package cannot do this for me.
> That is why I had to get into it and try to do it manually.

From the command line (substitute your BigPond account details):

/sbin/e-smith/db configuration set DialupUserAccount frogpond
/sbin/e-smith/db configuration set DialupUserPassword croak
/sbin/e-smith/signal-event console-save

You should also be able to do this from the console by
selecting Dial-up, setting username and password, and then
selecting dedicated - DHCP - send Ethernet address.

Gordon

[Gordon Rowell]

Barry Rogers wrote:
>
> I do not have a selection of PPPoE on the console. Are you
> talking about V4.1.1? I am on V4.0.1.

Yes - 4.1.1

> I cannot get from V4.0.1 to V4.1.1 as I cannot backup
> correctly, which was the reason I posted the original message
> in the 1st place. You were kind enough to pick up on the BPA
> problem I am having as well.

I left the backup/restore problem alone as that had already
been picked up on. We provide unlimited technical support to
our registered customers, but, as you can understand, we
can't guarantee any answers to unsupported customers.

You can do an in-place upgrade from 4.0.1 to 4.1.1

> The backup problem has not been resolved yet, so I'm stuck on
> V4.0.1 for now. Does this present problems?

No, just some more manual steps required.

> Therefore, if I do not configure /etc/bpalogin.conf manually,
> the console and the last .rpm package cannot do this for me.
> That is why I had to get into it and try to do it manually.

From the command line (substitute your BigPond account details):

/sbin/e-smith/db configuration set DialupUserAccount frogpond
/sbin/e-smith/db configuration set DialupUserPassword croak
/sbin/e-smith/signal-event console-save

You should also be able to do this from the console by
selecting Dial-up, setting username and password, and then
selecting dedicated - DHCP - send Ethernet address.

Gordon

[Barry Rogers]

I have tried to do all you told me to do, however I cannot do the /sbin/e-smith/ db configuration ... command as there is no 'db' command.
I have also tried to do the 'trick the box' thing by configuring it for a dial-up, entering the user/password, then saved, then changed back to permanent connection, then saved, and still nothing.
I know it is something really basic not happening here, that is stopping this from working, but what?

Thanks.

[Gordon Rowell]

Barry Rogers wrote:
>
> I have tried to do all you told me to do, however I cannot do
> the /sbin/e-smith/ db configuration ... command as there is
> no 'db' command.

There should be - it was in 4.0.1 (but not in 4.0)

Anyway, you can use the older style:

/sbin/e-smith/config set DialupUserAccount frogpond
/sbin/e-smith/config set DialupUserPassword croak

/sbin/e-smith/signal-event console-save

> I have also tried to do the 'trick the box' thing by
> configuring it for a dial-up, entering the user/password,
> then saved, then changed back to permanent connection, then
> saved, and still nothing.

I developed this for 4.1 and may have missed something for
4.0.1 compatability.

> I know it is something really basic not happening here, that
> is stopping this from working, but what?

We'll get there - I probably just forgot something from 4.0.1
days. I'll contact you to find out what's missing.

Gordon

[Barry Rogers]

I have 4.1.1 on CDROM here and will load and try it out.Will let you know how this goes. Should I de-install the 2 rpms after this upgrade or will it be OK after this is carried out?

[Barry Rogers]

I have upgraded to 4.1.1 and the backup now works, albiet VERY slowly. Is there some way of automating this overnight to a ws?

[DOOPY_LOOPY]

**DISCLAIMER**
I'm a nix newbie.

Ok now that is over with

Does this apply to ver 4.1?

Why do you not recommend using the CharlieBrady RPM bpalogin-2.0-1

This seems to me to be a more uptodate RPM.

Does this fix things so that you don't have to apply the two rpm's that you installed?

Thanks for your patience

[Gordon Rowell]

Barry Rogers wrote:
>
> I have 4.1.1 on CDROM here and will load and try it out.Will
> let you know how this goes. Should I de-install the 2 rpms
> after this upgrade or will it be OK after this is carried out?

No need to remove them - just upgrade and then return to
step 1

Gordon