Proper backup and restore -- is there a way?

[Ioannis Vranos]

On Thu, Jan 26, 2012 at 7:39 AM, Marcus Reid <marcus at blazingdot.com> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I am trying to find out the best way to make backups of an Ubuntu
> machine that allows me to restore to bare metal, boot, and go home.
> As an example of what I'm looking for, here is how I do it in FreeBSD
> and Solaris:
>
> FreeBSD (ufs):
>
>  - Use 'dump' (with -L) to dump consistant snapshots of each filesystem
>    (no need to shut down databases to ensure consistency, etc.)
>
>  - When it comes time to restore, boot off of cd/thumbdrive, 'fdisk
>    -BI' for the mbr, partition disk and install 2nd stage bootloader
>    with 'bsdlabel', 'restore' each partition, and reboot.  Go home
>    and go back to sleep.
>
>  - I have not tested any backup/restore of ZFS-based FreeBSD machines.
>
> Solaris (zfs):
>
>  - make a zfs replication stream of snapshots of all partitions in the
>    root pool with 'zfs snapshot -r rpool at now', then 'zfs send -R
>    rpool at now > backupfile'.  Do the same for other pools, if any, being
>    backed up.
>
>  - Netboot the machine to a jumpstart server or boot off of install
>    media, and use the procedure documented at:
>
>      http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E19963-01/html/821-1448/ghzvz.html#ghzur
>
> Now, with this Ubuntu box (ext4) I'm seeing a couple of things that I
> would like to find solutions for:
>
>  - lack of snapshots prevents dumping of an active filesystem without
>    corrupting active databases, etc.
>
>  - how does one go about restoring to bare metal with Ubuntu?  Boot
>    off of install media, partition, and lay down dumps?  Are there
>    special considerations for the /dev/md0 /boot partition and the
>    device mapper partitions?  For example, here is what I've got to
>    work with:
>
>        mreid at socit:~$ mount
>        /dev/mapper/socit-root on / type ext4 (rw,relatime,errors=remount-ro)
>        proc on /proc type proc (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
>        none on /sys type sysfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
>        none on /sys/fs/fuse/connections type fusectl (rw)
>        none on /sys/kernel/debug type debugfs (rw)
>        none on /sys/kernel/security type securityfs (rw)
>        none on /dev type devtmpfs (rw,mode=0755)
>        none on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,noexec,nosuid,gid=5,mode=0620)
>        none on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev)
>        none on /var/run type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,mode=0755)
>        none on /var/lock type tmpfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
>        none on /lib/init/rw type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,mode=0755)
>        /dev/md0 on /boot type ext4 (rw)
>        /dev/mapper/socit-tmp on /tmp type ext4 (rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime)
>        /dev/mapper/socit-home on /home type ext4 (rw,relatime)
>        /dev/mapper/socit-var on /var type ext4 (rw)
>
> I have asked around a bit and have not seen much in the way of peoples
> actual methods, so I would love to hear what you do when faced with a
> dead system that needs to be restored.

I do not know much abojut these stuff, however I have seen that ZFS is
available in Ubuntu, with the zfs-fuse package.

A newer version is available here:

http://zfs-fuse.net

I do not know how ready for prime time it is though.


-- 
Ioannis Vranos

http://cppsoftware.binhoster.com