Re: Backup Consensus?
On Mon, Jan 27, 2003 at 11:03:47PM +1100, bob parker wrote:
> On Mon, 27 Jan 2003 08:32, Grant Bowman wrote:
> > Is there a place where a general consensus has been reached on exactly
> > what is necesary to backup a Debian system? I'm sure this has been
> > asked and answered many times before, so I am looking for URLs to where
> > this has been discussed in the past.
> >
> > I apologize in advance, but I'm not a subscriber of this list. Please
> > cc me on replies.
> >
> > Thank you very much,
>
> FWIW I first of all dump my postgres databases into $HOME, then make a list
> of my installed (debian) packages, also in $HOME.
>
> I then backup $HOME excluding browser cache files, /etc and /usr/local.
>
> My idea is that after a disaster I'd make a minimum debian install, restore
> $HOME, /usr/local. After that I'd reinstall my packages from the list I
> gathered and then selectively restore /etc to get my configs back the way I
> had them.
>
> I've never used this in anger and I'd welcome any suggestions from the wiser
> heads out there.
Well, this is almost exactly what I did when I found I couldn't
straightforwardly upgrade from slink to woody, and needed to install
woody but keep all my settings from slink. Main difference is I didn't
save /usr/local, since it was full of stuff I'd need to recompile
anyway to work with the upgraded libc6. It worked... very well. See
thread "Can't upgrade from slink to woody" or similar. The only
problems I had were specific to the upgrade situation and wouldn't
arise when restoring the original version.
Couple of suggestions:
- might be an idea to save /var as well
- if you're into kernel customising, make sure you have a rescue
kernel with built-in support for all your critical hardware (ie, not
as modules). I NEARLY got caught without a kernel that would recognise
my Initio 9100UW SCSI card, but managed to find one. (Phew!)
Pigeon
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