Topic: backup2ws restore problems on 5.6U4

[Ray Mitchell]

Dear all
Anyone having issues with backup2ws when doing FULL Disaster Recovery restores on 5.6U4 ?

When I do a restore from the disaster recovery backup, all files seem to be restored except /home/e-smith, nothing in there is restored. Even if I just type home/e-smith in Restore 1 field, the files are still not restored. No entry about these folders appears in the restore log (see below).

When I run the restore I select the date of the file and then type FULL in the Restore 1 field. I can see a restore report in the admin new mail folder, and then I do the advanced restore post-upgrade/reboot function.

I have created a disaster recovery backup (12Mb) which seems OK as I can view the files and restore from them using WinRAR directly. I have tried a few different backup files with the same results.

I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling, even tried different version rpms
dmc-mitel-backup2ws-0.0.1-14.noarch.rpm
dmc-mitel-backup2ws-0.0.1-15.noarch.rpm
dmc-mitel-backup2ws-0.0.1-16.noarch.rpm
but still with the same result.
I have reinstalled fresh versions of the 5.6 OS both the standard UDR and update4 releases. The server is AMD 1.8GHz with 128Mb & 40G HDD, & w/s is W2KPro P4 1.8GHz with 512Mb RAM & 40Gb HDD, so the hardware has enough memory & is fast. The restore only takes less than a minute.

Is there something I have missed doing or is this a problem with backup2ws ??

Thanks & Regards
Ray Mitchell

Here is the restore log
RAR 3.10 Copyright (c) 1993-2002 Eugene Roshal 18 Dec 2002
Shareware version Type RAR -? for help

Extracting from /mnt/backup2ws.911/911/911.05.13.03.rar

Extracting /home/netlogon/netlogon.bat OK
Extracting /etc/e-smith/templates-custom/etc/diald.filter/20office OK
Extracting /etc/e-smith/templates-custom/etc/diald.filter/40outside OK
Extracting /etc/e-smith/templates-custom/etc/diald.filter/60weekend OK
Extracting /etc/e-smith/templates-custom/etc/rc.d/init.d/masq/10masq_pptp OK
Extracting /etc/e-smith/templates-user-custom/.qmail/e-smithForward20 OK
Extracting /etc/group OK
Extracting /etc/gshadow OK
Extracting /etc/passwd OK
Extracting /etc/shadow OK
Extracting /etc/smbpasswd OK
Extracting /etc/ssh/ssh_config OK
Extracting /etc/ssh/moduli OK
Extracting /etc/ssh/ssh_host_key OK
Extracting /etc/ssh/sshd_config OK
Extracting /etc/ssh/ssh_host_key.pub OK
Extracting /etc/ssh/ssh_host_rsa_key OK
Extracting /etc/ssh/ssh_host_rsa_key.pub OK
Extracting /etc/ssh/ssh_host_dsa_key OK
Extracting /etc/ssh/ssh_host_dsa_key.pub OK
Extracting /root/install.log OK
Extracting /root/install.log.syslog OK
Extracting /root/.bash_logout OK
Extracting /root/.Xresources OK
Extracting /root/.ssh/config OK
Extracting /root/.rnd OK
Extracting /root/.bash_profile OK
Extracting /root/.bashrc OK
Extracting /root/.cshrc OK
Extracting /root/.tcshrc OK
Extracting /root/anaconda-ks.cfg OK
Extracting /root/.mc/ini OK
Extracting /root/.mc/history OK
Extracting /root/.mc/Tree OK
Extracting /root/.my.cnf OK
Extracting /root/.bash_history OK
Extracting /root/raidmonitor/mdstat OK
Extracting /root/raidmonitor/lilo.conf OK
Extracting /root/raidmonitor/fstab OK
Extracting /root/raidmonitor/raidtab OK
Extracting /root/raidmonitor/sfdisk.out OK
Extracting /root/.cedit/Syntax OK
Extracting /root/mail/sent-mail OK
Extracting /root/mail/saved-messages OK
Extracting /root/.pinerc OK
Extracting /root/scripts/listfiles OK
All OK

[mike]

I have just been through extensive testing on exactly the same issue. The 911 job does backup /home-e-smith/ but does not seem to restore it.
The work around is to edit the 911 job to add the /home/e-smith in again to the source before you do the restore . ie you will have it there twice
/home/e-smith,/home/e-smith,/home/netlogon,/etc/e-smith/templates-custom,/etc/e-smith/templates-user-custom,/etc/group,/etc/gshadow,/etc/passwd,/etc/shadow,/etc/smbpasswd,/etc/ssh,/opt,/root

Save the job
then do a restore with the FULL option in line 1. Presto all your ibays and user files will be there.

B2ws is a great product and I recently used it for a migration from software to hardware RAID
 But
I have never managed to get a selective restore working though and always had to use FULL in line 1

The other issue I had was that the restore log reported several thousand errors as the last line. Individual files all said OK and then came the n,nnn errors. At first I thought this was all too hard but eventualy realised after more digging that the files are all restored OK but the permisions are not.
(Yes I used RAR which is the default in the 911 job)

Basically if the users and groups are not restored before the files, permissions cant be set properly. I have not been able to figure out exactly when this happens as in about 50 test restores about 40 were perfect and 10 had the permissions problem. One sure fire fix is to create the users and groups via server manager before the restore. Fine if there are not too many. Often runing the restore again seemed to fix it.  As a last resort you could manually chown the permissions

Conclusion b2ws is worth the effort in spite of a couple of issues and I am looking at using it for backup rather than a slowww tape drive.
good luck mike

[Ray Mitchell]

Thanks Mike for your feedback

At least I know now that it is backup2ws that is the problem and not me !

Your /home/e-smith workaround is an interesting one, I will give it a go.

Obviously something must be askew with the program, but I agree with you, it is far too good and useful to be put in the rubbish bin, just needs some rough edges polishing.

Thanks
Ray

[Ray Mitchell]

Mike
What happens when you include /home/e-smith a second time in the 911 job, does it actually backup all the /home/e-smith data twice ?
If you had a lot of data, this could create a big backup file (nearly twice the size !!)

Thanks
Ray

[Mike]

I only put  the /home/e-smith in the second time when I want to resptore.  It backs up OK with the default script

So no problem with the file getting to be double size.

Look at the /var/log/backup2ws/911.log file to see exactly what is going on. I have just moved  15GB  of Ibay data from one server to another and it worked fine.
Let me know how you go I know how frustrating it can be. If you can duplicate my findings I will email Darrell May

mike

[Ray Mitchell]

Mike
I just tried a restore with /home/e-smith entered twice in the source for job 911, and the restore worked correctly ie now all files in /home/e-smith are restored as well as all the others. All the restored files now appear in the restore.log file. GOOD !!
It seems as if the restore process ignores the first occurence of /home/e-smith, so putting it in a second time makes it work.

I also tried a backup2ws with /home/e-smith also entered twice but found that it is only backed up once in the backup file when I look at the archive using WinRAR. It was only a small backup file of 250K, so I'm not sure if it actually copied the data twice and overwrote the first backup copy in the RAR archive, or if it just ignored doing it a second time as it was already there. Not sure how RAR works in this regard.
I also tried a 25Mb backup file and that restored correctly as well.

I have already posted this query on Darrell Mays forum, and took the liberty of posting your first reply there to confirm to Darrell that someone else was also having the same problem. See
http://myezserver.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=368

Please feel free to post any further comments you have about the problem as it may help someone with coding skills to implement a fix.

At least for now there is a workaround to get the 911 restore working.

Thanks & Regards
Ray Mitchell