Topic: nfs mounts and backup

[Hasan Muhammad]

I would like to use one e-smith server to backup another.

I've tried using mounting samba shares from one machine on the other, but the file ownerhips are not retained.

So next I tried nfs mounts as follows...
  on the source machine /etc/exports contains a line
      /var         192.168.0.4(ro, no_root_squash)

  on the target machine /etc/fstab contains a line
     192.168.0.11:/var    /mnt/nfs-var     nfs     noauto,soft,ro

  on the target machine, when type the following from the command-line
      mount /mnt/nfs-var
              I get the following error message
    mount: RPC: Port mapper failure - RPC: Unable to receive


Any ideas on how to backup some directories from one e-smith server to another?

[Hasan Muhammad]

Problem backing up on e-smith to another:
Critical issue: retaining file ownerships and permission
  Why is this important?
  Because if an e-smith is used as a imap mail server and file server, then the user files and the /var branch are mission critical (they should not ever be lost).

Solution: Use nfs to mount the directories from the machine to be backed-up [server machine] into the file system of the backup machine [client machine]; then run the mirrdir application each night.

Security Issue: nfs posses security risks so read the NFS How To; since both of my machines are behind a firewall, the security risk is minimal.

To get nfs working, I added the following redhat 6.1 packages to both e-smith machines:
  portmap-4.0-17.i386.rpm            
  knfsd-clients-1.4.7-7.i386.rpm      
  knfsd-1.4.7-7.i386.rpm
  mirrordir-0-10.49-1    [redhat contribution]
added the following to /etc/rc.d/rc.local
  /etc/rc.d/init.d/portmap start
  /etc/rc.d/init.d/nfs start
  /sbin/rpc.statd
added the following to /etc/hosts.allow
  portmap : 127.0.0.1, 192.168.0.0/255.255.255.0
added the following to /etc/exports [server machine]
  /etc    192.168.0.4(ro,no_root_squash)
  /var    192.168.0.4(ro,no_root_squash)
  /home    192.168.0.4(ro,no_root_squash)
then run from the command-line each time /etc/exports is changed
  /usr/sbin/exporfs
create mount point [client machine]
  mkdir /mnt/nfs-etc
  mkdir /mnt/nfs-var
  mkdir /mnt/nfs-home
added the following to /etc/fstab [client machine]
  192.168.0.11:/etc     /mnt/nfs-etc       nfs        noauto,ro
  192.168.0.11:/var     /mnt/nfs-var       nfs        noauto,ro
  192.168.0.11:/home  /mnt/nfs-home     nfs        noauto,ro
create backup directories on [client machine]
  mkdir /backup
  mkdir /backup/nfs-etc
  mkdir /backup/nfs-var
  mkdir /backup/nfs-home
created the following script /etc/cron.daily/mirror-nfs
  #!/bin/sh
  mount /mnt/nfs-etc
  sleep 5  
  /usr/bin/mirrordir -v /mnt/nfs-etc /backup/nfs-etc  > mdir-etc.out 2> mdir-etcr.err
  umount /mnt/nfs-etc  
  ...repeat for /mnt/nfs-var and /mnt/nfs-home

Possible improvements:
  Instead of backing-up to /backup/nfs-home, backup to /home (excluding /home/e-smith/configuration.
  Then create user accessible samba shares (read only) on the backup machine, so users can recover backed files.  
  This probably requires the following changes on the client machine.
  -copying the password and group files from the server machine and 'asterisking out' the passwords
  -editing /etc/smb.conf on the client machine
     security = server
     password server =