Daniel Lim wrote:
Hi, I have a newly installed SuSe Linux SLES 8.1 on a Compaq H/W with a scsi SDLT tape drive and I am using the Linux native dump command to backup all ext3 type filesystems to tape on a nightly basis, backup works well and I can use restore to verify the backup. My question is in the event of a disaster how do I restore/recover the root filesystem and /boot to a new hard disk from the tape so it can be booted up again with all original system settings. I have experience in recovery of the Sun Solaris system but not too sure about how to do this under Linux.
I've done this several times, but from hard drive to hard drive or tar ball to hard drive. You can follow the same procedure to replicate systems too. I've read from the linux kernel mailing list that dump is deprecated. I've always been happy with tar. Also check 'star' for more sofisticated file ACL setups. To recover, I follow roughly this process: 1. Install new drive in same "position" than old one (same /dev/hda#, etc.) 2. Partition and create filesystems in the same way as old old disk if you wish. 3. Boot the suse installation cd in rescue mode 4. Mount the new media, say /mnt of the rescue environment 5. Restore from the backed-up media. The next steps will restore the boot manager GRUB to the new disk. 6. Reboot with the suse cd again, this time select "Installation" and pass the boot parameter "1" to boot in single user mode later. 7. Follow the screens till you have the choice of "Boot installed system". After you select this, the installer detect a bootable root filesystem on your disks and offer a selection or just continue booting if there is only one. This will boot the restored disk. You will end up at a login prompt. 8. Re-install the boot manager with: grub-install /dev/hda 9. Reboot. There may be a way to reinstall the boot manager on step 5, somebody in the list may know. You can also use "Repair Installed System" in step 7 (it takes more time though). -- Rafael