Re: backing up a complete linux system
"Mike Egglestone" <Mike_Egglestone@fc.schdist57.bc.ca> writes:
> Hi all.....
> I trying to do a backup of my system and I think I might have the
> backup part right....correct me if I'm wrong....
> I could use this command....
>
> tar -cvzf hda2.tar.gz /
> ( I don't need to add this ... --exclude hda2.tar.gz do I ??)
Yeah you probably do. You might want to exclude other stuff to, like
/proc, /mnt, /tmp, and possibly /dev. Normally device files are created with
/dev/MAKEDEV.
I back up my machine to 4 100MB ZIP disks, using tar via a script that
sets up all the options, prompts for the disks, etc. I can mail you
the script if you want. I don't back up everything either. For
example, the only thing under /usr that gets backed up is
/usr/local. The theory being that I can re-create the debian stuff
with the appropriate apt-get commands, given the stuff in
/var/cache/apt and so on. I've never had to restore the whole system
though, so there might be some bugs to iron out ;)
> anyway... the part where I'm stuck...
> I have no idea how to restore this tarred file on to a totally new
> drive....
> my guess.....
> add the other drive.... partition similar to hda (swap and such)
> mount the partition.... say......mount /dev/hdc2 /mnt
> then untar the file hda2.tar.gz into /mnt......
> now I should have 2 file systems ... one at "/"
> and the other at "/mnt"
> so what do I do now?
> Just put the hdc drive in place of the hda drive... redo lilo and
> presto?
I'd probably first leave the two drives where they are, reboot to the LILO
prompt, pass a kernel parameter like "root=/dev/hdc2", and see if the
new filesystem does the right thing (ie boots). I've never replaced a
drive, but you might run into problems e.g. if the new drive is a lot
bigger and LILO gets confused, in which case you might have to read
the LILO docs and/or upgrade your LILO.
-chris
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