Backups

[djgoku]

On 8/1/06, Jack <quiet_celt at yahoo.com> wrote:
> Well, I've done it again.
>
> My /var partition went south today on my server. I couldn't find my backup media. It wasn't a full backup anyway. For some reason that partition kept my system from booting. Not sure what's going on there, unless I had a link from /usr to /var  (a very real possibility).
>
> Anyway! I've just bought a DVD+RW writer for the server. The goal is to make a complete backup of the system onto a DVD, that can be used to rebuild the system.
>
> Question 1: Is it possible to 'dd' directly onto a DVD medium, so that it could be 'dd'ed back onto a new HD?

You could boot to a LiveCD and if you have a spare HD dd
if=/dev/device of=/dev/difdevice.iso, then burn to DVD or CD. You
could also tar the directorys you want to save and reinstall. I don't
know what OS you are using, but most all my changes on my OpenBSD
systems are in /etc, /home, and for the exception of my webserver
/var/www/. So for me I just tar /etc /home and /var and reinstall in
an event of a problem. Doesn't really take to long to have a fully
working server/workstation for me, you mileage may vary.

> Question 2: How would one best copy the entire file structure onto a dvd to make it a bootable media, so that it could be used as a boot device?
>
> Answers must be suitable for a CLI only system as this is a server and has no X.