Topic: how to succesfully backup installed contribs?

[Stefano]

1. I still want to put data on a removable media each night so it can be removed next day and taken off site (and THAT needs recovery beyond sme).

what's wrong with standard backup to tape?

2. Also I have found the install with RAID slow (45mins after an hour or two to format 2x1TB), and the initial raid sync takes ages too (maybe some raids are not equal - I was warned to set the drives down from 3Gb to 1.5Gb)

hint: install only to a single disk.. add contribs and configuration.. then add the second one and let the raid sync happen (during the night, for example)..

hint2: prefer many hd but small and in raid5/6 than 2 hd with high capacity in raid 1.. in my personal experience I found the bigger the weaker..

my 2c

[aussierob]

Good points again S !
I was going to do that, but 1st try I thought I would see what 1TB SATA drives were like (being a old SCSI man): so of course I will do the single next time (the initial sync is going to run for days!)

Re Tape, well DVD is already there, media is cheap, and it can be read/stored elsewhere too. So I still seek best idea to at least copy data files onto DVD (maybe I should just work out how to mount/format/zip onto it)
Robert

[janet]

aussierob

I still want to put data on a removable media each night so it can be removed next day and taken off site (and THAT needs recovery beyond sme).

What about using Affa, to a dedicated backup server, or even another production sme server (with large disks). It does not backup installed contribs (as per standard backup methods except tape), but it nicely carries the backup offsite via the Internet, if configured that way.

It avoids the physical hassles of removing (and returning) media etc, and you can keep many old backup jobs, without suffering backup data bloat, due to the incremental nature of the daily backup and the use of hard links to previous backups.

Perform the first full backup on LAN (on site) though, so it finishes in a reasonable time.

Easy to restore individual files across the Internet, and can be used in the event of a major server hardware failure ie courier the backup server to the live site, and "rise" it to be the production server temporarily.

For really long term archival storage of backups, you can swap out a removable RAID1 drive and lock it in a cupboard every six months or year or as required. Drives are cheap these days.

[janet]

aussierob

...well DVD is already there, media is cheap, and it can be read/stored elsewhere too. So I still seek best idea to at least copy data files onto DVD

Hard drives are cheaper per Mb of data stored than DVDs.
Affa can use local or remote ssh to do command line individual file restores back to the live server.
If you need to recover/save certain larger amounts of data from the backup server, you can temporarily rise the server (20 minutes or so), and then copy off the data from the ibays etc across the LAN to other workstations or DVD media etc (at the remote backup server site).

[aussierob]

Hard drives are cheaper per Mb of data stored than DVDs.
Affa can use local or remote ssh

This server is a LONG way away, and I NEED files on DVD. So what I have done - comments appreciated...

1. I wanted a compressed set of data, and prefer to just a script to drive existing processes.
SME7.4 has miksofs and growisofs, also zip/unzip in place (/usr/bin)  so I used
# zip -r /tmp/data1.zip /xxx /yyy/*.rpm

2. You can use miksofs to create an ISO for put on DVD, so I used this
# mkisofs -r -o /tmp/data1.iso /tmp/data1.zip (growisofs needs an ISO file for input)

3. Use the growisofs command to write the ISO onto the DVD
# growisofs -Z /dev/dvd=/tmp/data1.iso

and you end up with a DVD with 1 single file data1.zip on it

( mkdir /mnt/dvd to have a mount point for dvd's

mount /dev/dvd /mnt/dvd and you can ls -l /mnt/dvd to see it)
I cannot see it on a windows drive, but either that drive is does not read that DVD type, or I have a growisofs option incorrect.
BUT I am now a happy camper - unless someone points out that my camping will be short lived.
I hope this may be a helpful suggestion to others.
Robert