Re: tar vs dpkg --get-selections for backup scheme

[Benedict Verheyen <linux4bene@pandora.be>]

Op do 25-09-2003, om 02:08 schreef Erik Steffl:
> Benedict Verheyen wrote:
> > Hi,
> > 
> > my server setup is nearing completion and of course i want to save my
> > hard work in case something goes wrong. Since i have problems in the
> > past with various backup programs like mondo to name one, i want to keep
> > it simple this time so a moronic me can understand whats happening :)
> > 
> > 1) Method 1.
> > Tar /etc, /root, /home, /boot, /var, /usr, ... and write it to cd's.
> > Not sure how you can fit several tar to one cd but maybe one can use
> > mkisofs to do this?
> > 
> > To restore, you would have to boot with a rescue cd like Knoppix,
> > partition the hd and restore the tars or install a base system and then
> > restore the tars.
> > 
> > I can see a problem with the restore from the cd's when a tar file, for
> > instance var.tar.gz, spans more than 1 cd. I had some problems restoring
> > my system once like that and i ended up with copying the different tars
> > from the cd that made up the 1 big tar, joined them and then untarred
> > them. Or isn't that a problem and is there another way to do that?
> > 
> > 2) Method 2.
> > First save the system status with dpkg --get-selections. Next backup
> > /etc, /root, /home, /boot, /usr.
> 
>    I think you only need /etc for the system and then any user data 
> (probably in /home), if you have custom kernel you need that as well 
> (kernel + kernel config so that you can rebuild that). Then you can 
> reinstall the system from scratch, install all the packages that were 
> installed before, restore /etc (or most of /etc) and you're up and 
> running...
> 
> 	erik

You are right about that. I also all my partitions on LVM except for
boot so this is another thing to worry about. Problem with that is that
you cannot create or at least not to my knowledge, LVM paritions with
the current installer. So i would first have to make a small install
probably, put everything on LVM, then pull my sources.list, preferences
file, firewall script and dpkg package selections in from the archive,
upgrade the distro and them copy the /etc, and home stuff over it.
But for this, the pc needs to be connected to the net. 
I wonder how one does this without inet. Not that that is a worry of me
since i'm on cable but i would like to know.

Benedict