Topic: SME Clone backup server

[smef@n]

thanks for the response. my concern still lies in the point where i have to re-download the contribs. I am not too much worried about the client data as there are many ways to back up the simplest one being tar.

please advise how can i take care of yum-update / contribs. is there a way i can perform the following steps:

1. install server
2. yum-update
3. backup yum-update stuff (contribs etc)
4. install server on a new hard disk (using CD)
5. transfer the yum-update stuff (contribs etc) on the new server thereby eliminating the need to re-update.

thanks

[David Harper]

I guess you could take an offline snapshot of the repositories on CD ... but I don't really see the point. Is there any reason you don't want to use yum in the event of a rebuild?

[smef@n]

well to start with, i live in Kenya. Bandwidth over here is as precious gold. hence i would like to avoid re-downloading the updates.

pls advise a solution to perform bare-metal level restoration. btw is there a way to integrate "remasterme" into SME Server. you may recall, remasterme is a special software that is distributed with distros like PCLos. Using this app, we can create a baremetal replica of the entire system that could be burnt onto a DVD and deployed anywhere with all the latest updates maintained.

thanks

[mercyh]

davidiwharper,
 
Thanks for clarifying my post.

[smef@n]

mercyh / davidiwharper

can you guys advise a solution to my problem. thanks

[mercyh]

smef@n,

I am not sure what your limitation is on the second server. (Money budget?, Time to maintain?).

A year ago I would have made the same comment you did about another server not being a viable option. I have since purchased a used server on ebay for $200 and it is performing the job nicely. I use this http://wiki.contribs.org/Netkeeper_Remote_Server_Monitor to watch both servers. It reports the last successful Affa job. I believe that I spend less time with this backup solution including the maintenance on the second server then I would with a comparable disk cloning solution.

All the SME backup solutions seem to be targeted at Data and Users only. I think the reason is that a clean install/update can be done in considerable less time than applying a disk image.

Your Bandwidth issue is a realistic concern where you are paying by the amount used.

I do think there is a disk cloning solution that can read the LVM partitions. I would google it and see if I could find it.

[mercyh]

I'm in way over my head here but am going to give you a couple of links to look at.

Disclaimer: I have tried none of this myself.

http://episteme.arstechnica.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/96509133/m/284001811931/inc/1

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/tags/dd

[m]

All the SME backup solutions seem to be targeted at Data and Users only. I think the reason is that a clean install/update can be done in considerable less time than applying a disk image.

I share this view. And I am glad about that the SME design does not require the use of bare metal restore tools like the buggy acronis stuff.
To save download costs on yum updates one can copy (or include into a backup) the /var/cache/yum/ directory from an updated SME master server to all newly installed servers. Then yum update reads the packages from the cache. When doing so, you should avoid a "yum clean" on the master, of course.

[David Harper]

I'm wondering whether the best solution might be to maintain a mirror on site, and then update the yum mirror list on the client servers.

You would still need the second server, and would need a rather large download first time around, but there are some advantages. Firstly, yum would select the mirror automagically with very little modification, and secondly, the downloads are compressed when you use rsync.

[janet]

smef@n

can you guys advise a solution to my problem

You would do well to read ALL of
http://wiki.contribs.org/Backup_server_config
particularly this section
http://wiki.contribs.org/Backup_server_config#Backup_and_Restore_concepts.2C_issues_and_other_information

There is no method integrated into sme server that will do a baremetal backup & restore.
Some backup methods come close.
Tape backup backs up all file systems, but does not by default restore them.
You could play around with full tape restores to achieve what you want, but not to an installed sme server, I'd assume to a blank mounted disk may be more successful.
You could also use the dd comand to copy the whole hard disk bit by bit to a mounted drive (slow though).
You could remove a RAID array member ie software RAID1, and that will be a complete backup including contribs. This is a reasonably effective answer, and only requires 5 minutes downtime, but does need someone to do this on site.

Otherwise you need to use some other proprietary method that supports Linux boot partitions & LVM.

[smef@n]

many thanks to all you wonderful people. i think i have gotten a pretty fair understanding of SME domain pertaining to the backup option.

David Harper:
Would you mind explaining the Mirroring option. I can (for once) afford to download the bulk download. As I am having a virtual servers running on ESXi platform, hence I don't see a problem in creating an extra (virtual) server. Please advise how can i get it done.

mercyh:
thanks a lot for the solutions. i appreciate your help.

[David Harper]

Try reading this Howto for Fedora. It will get you started, although it refers to Fedora Core rather than SME Server specifically.

Once you have created the mirror, you would need to redirect SME to use it by editing the yum_repositories database.

[smef@n]

many thanks. will check it out and update the post in case i get stuck.

[shawnbishop]

I mirror all my installs..due to critical data...I run rsync every 60 minutes...