Topic: Urgent: Manual Backup and Restore tips?

[djhomeless]

Hi All,
My 6.5 box refuses to boot and I have had no luck fixing the boot errors in fsck. If it weren't for the fact that I totally rely on my email and sites, then I would probably be methodical about this. But I can't, so I'm looking to do a simple/quick backup and restore.

I am able to boot using a Knoppix Live CD, and I can see that my data is all safe and sound. From the SME Faq, I know that I will need to backup the following directories by hand:

/home/e-smith
/etc/e-smith/templates-custom
/etc/e-smith/templates-user-custom
/etc/ssh
/root/.ssh
/etc/passwd
/etc/shadow
/etc/group
/etc/gshadow
/etc/smbpasswd

A couple of questions if I may:

1. As I am going to dump this data to a USB drive, will I need to worry about the permissions coming over as well?
2. Is there any special procedure I need to follow to restore the above? ie, as soon as I backup the data, I will do a fresh install, then do a restore. Is this the best way?
3. What about the various lib's that I have installed, say Imagemagick. Can this be backed up as well?
4. Would it be possible to do a restore onto v. 7beta8 as well as a fresh 6.5? I've been meaning to upgrade anyway....

I really would appreciate any assistance or guidance that you guys may have. I am really lost without this box!

regards,

Geoffrey

[ajkeane]

I recently went through a very similar problem and also managed to regain my data using knoppix.

In the end I opted to manually set up all of my users and ibays and then just copies the user data and ibay data back into the appropriate directories.

I then had to chown and chmod the directories so that they had the correct ownership.

I had everything done and up and working in a few hours and am happy with the results.

Tony

[raem]

djhomeless

What about your regular backup, is that available to restore to a newly installed OS, I'm guessing not ???!!!


> Is there any special procedure I need to follow to restore the above?

Install a fresh copy of sme 6.5
do the restore
then do
/sbin/e-smith/signal-event post-upgrade
then reboot



> What about the various lib's that I have installed...

You will need to reinstall any add on apps.
You will also need to backup and restore any non standard "data" folders that your add on apps are using eg
/opt


> Would it be possible to do a restore onto v. 7beta8

I think you should stick with the same version while getting yourself out of trouble, an upgrade to v7beta8 now, will only add more complexity and will not solve your current problems.


You will also need to backup the mysql databases. they are usually included as a dump in a "automatic" tape or desktop backup.

[CharlieBrady]

1. As I am going to dump this data to a USB drive, will I need to worry about the permissions coming over as well?

Yes.

2. Is there any special procedure I need to follow to restore the above? ie, as soon as I backup the data, I will do a fresh install, then do a restore. Is this the best way?

Not quite. After the fresh install, do "signal-event pre-restore", then restore the files, then do "signal-event post-upgrade ; signal-event reboot".

3. What about the various lib's that I have installed, say Imagemagick. Can this be backed up as well?

Not simply. I recomment you set aside an i-bay for storing any add-on software packages that you install, so that they can be easily re-installed after restore from backup.

4. Would it be possible to do a restore onto v. 7beta8 as well as a fresh 6.5?

Yes.