Topic: How do you backup up to USB disk with v7.1

[dmacgregor963]

It appears that an Admin Console Backup to USB Disk option was introduced in v7.2.  I am still at 7.1 and have had difficulty with yum update to 7.2 (email server wouldn't send mail). For now I want to backup to USB from 7.1.  So far I changed the $device setting in flexbackup.conf to cause flexbackup to successfully backup some files to my USB disk. But changing $device alone causes do_backup to complain and I do not know just which files do_backup is including in the backup to be able to do the same using flexbackup.

Any advice anyone on how to get a do_backup type backup to USB disk instead of tape?

[chris burnat]

I am still at 7.1 and have had difficulty with yum update to 7.2 (email server wouldn't send mail).

Have you read and follow the guidance found at:
http://wiki.contribs.org/SME_Server:Documentation:FAQ#Updating_from_SME_7.x_to_SME_7.2

If affirmative, please fill a Bug report providing as much detail as you can. Upgrading from 7.1 to 7.2 or indeed 7.3 should not result in anty loss of functionality if you follow the wiki referred above.  No need to backup/restore using USB drives etc.  It there are problems, it should be considered a possible bug and go to Bugzilla (the Bugtracker). 
Thanks

[dmacgregor963]

Thanks for the link -- I'll check it out and see if I can do the upgrade.

The USB disk backup is a somewhat separate issue because my tape drives are acting up and I need to get good backups going ASAP.  Currently I am just doing a copy of /home to my USB disk.  So I would still appreciate advice on this issue.

[raem]

dmacgregor963

There are numerous backup solutions, most of which backup to USB, see
http://wiki.contribs.org/Category:Backup

You would be best to resolve yum issues as per the FAQ, and then do a yum upgrade to sme7.3, all of which can be done remotely and fairly quickly too. You will then have the backup to USB function in the console (which was added to sme7.2).

[chris burnat]

If you do not have any backup software available, and wish to backup before upgrading (some insurance just in case), check:
http://forums.contribs.org/index.php?topic=40077.0

I think it would go like this:
First do: signal-event pre-restore
Backup:
etc/sudoers
etc/passwd
etc/shadow
etc/group
etc/gshadow
etc/samba/secrets.tdb
etc/samba/smbpasswd
/etc/e-smith/templates-custom
/etc/e-smith/templates-user-custom
etc/smbpasswd
home/e-smith/
Then do a full reconfiguration

I have not tested this, Ray would be best placed to confirm if correct.

[raem]

dmacgregor963 & chris

The full manual backup & restore procedure is outlined here, which is one of the backup methods already linked to in my previous post.

http://wiki.contribs.org/Backup_server_config


If you want a good backup before attempting further yum updates etc, and you have a lot of data, I'd suggest using the backup with dar update, or the dar2 contrib, see the Backup category link provided earlier.

[dmacgregor963]

chris and ray,

Thanks very much for the help.  I see now that I did not follow all the update instructions -- I just did yum clean and yum update.  I will try again but only with the insurance of a good backup to fall back on. So I will check out the various backup options you referenced.  I have a backup computer that I can test the update process on but I need to restore current data to it to make for a convincing test run.  I am definitely looking forward the Backup to USB Disk option!

[dmacgregor963]

Ray,

I checked out your link:  http://wiki.contribs.org/Category:Backup   so I could do a dar backup of my sme7.1 system to my USB disk.

It appears that "backup with dar" requires sme7.2 which is where I am trying to get to from v7.1.

I can not tell if "dar2" also requires 7.2 or not.  Can you say?

Thanks,

Doug

[raem]

dmacgregor963

I can not tell if "dar2" also requires 7.2 or not.  Can you say?

It's OK with sme7.0 onwards.

[dmacgregor963]

I tried to follow the instructions in Darrell Mays Dar2 contrib but the downloads via wget don't work.  In fact dar-2.3.2-1.i386.rpm doesn't even seem to be present on contribs.org.  I have emailed Darrell May.  Any other help would be greatly appreciated.

[raem]

dmacgregor963

Obviously deleted. Sometimes you need to look around.
See
http://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/smeserver/releases/7/smetest/i386/RPMS/

[dmacgregor963]

Thanks.  I did look around but obviously not in the right place.

[versa]

This is where I got it.

wget http://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/smeserver/releases/7/smetest/i386/RPMS/dar-2.3.6-1.el4.sme.i386.rpm
wget http://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/smeserver/releases/7/smetest/i386/RPMS/libdar-2.3.6-1.el4.sme.i386.rpm
wget http://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/smeserver/contribs/dmay/smeserver/7.x/smeserver-dar2-0.0.1-3dmay.noarch.rpm

then installed them

yum localinstall *.rpm

Hope this helps you.

[dmacgregor963]

Thanks to versa, Ray, and chris, I got the dar backup to USB disk working at last.  Now I feel OK about attempting the update from smesever7.1 to 7.3.  I am going to go the CD route this time. 

I am Doug, BTW.  Thanks for your help folks.  This has been my first serious encounter SME-Server troubleshooting and I have learned a lot.  On the tape drive front, which was the original impetus of all this, Dell is going to be replacing the drive.