Linux backup and restore server project- several particulars needed.

[Brian Kelsay]

I agree with Monty here.   If you want to set up some backup software
which includes a server or multiple OSes, there is going to be some
config required.   Unless you control the server hardware, the router,
the network infrastructure in general, you can't create a one size
fits all solution.   Someone, somewhere is gonna have to have a clue
about what their IP address is, what the server IP is, or hostnames of
PCs if your local DNS is working right.

I have also witnessed user error with regard to backups.  The faithful
little user puts in the right tape each day and runs the backup job,
but the tapes are completely empty due to a failure of the drive or
the software to get past an error.  It takes a semi-experienced tech
to figure out there is a failure of some sort and then fix it.  Most
times you don't need a full backup, which may take too long anyway if
using tape, you just need data in one specific location.

Anyway, there are the parts out there to do what you want, but I doubt
it will be turn-key and tard-proof.

Mondo and Mindi on the Linux side can be scripted to do a backup. They
are included on the System Rescue CD.   Ghost Enterprise has tools to
do exactly what you and one of the other guys talked about with
booting to a small partition and then retrieving your image, but it is
not dead simple.  Clonezilla is probably up to the task.  You could
edit the liveCD to include a custom boot script to backup to a server,
but you are going to have to build that based on the network setup.
http://clonezilla.sourceforge.net/
http://gparted.sourceforge.net/livecd.php


On 9/17/07, Monty J. Harder <mjharder at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 9/17/07, Oren Beck <orenbeck at gmail.com> wrote:
> > Concise statement of a non-trivial larger concept is to have a Linux
> server make timed backups of several windows systems in a zero user
> interaction format- and be able to remote restore those boxes equally "no
> user assist" required.
>
>  Define "zero user interaction format" and "no user assist", which you've
> already put in quotes..  Do these mean that we're allowed one or more
> "administrators" as opposed to "users" to install and configure the system
> on the backup server(s) and Windows systems, or what, exactly?
>
>  These periodic "Make it simple enough for the dummies!" exercises try my
> patience.  There is a minimum amount of complexity involved in a backup
> system that can't be avoided.  If nothing else, when the Windows side runs,
> if it does not pop up some message confirming that the backup was
> successful, the "No news is good news" trap is set.  A failure of the backup
> software to run would be interpreted by the users as "everything is OK",
> which it isn't.
>
>   I speak from painful experience here.
>
>   Another painful fact is that backup software running under Windows seems
> to be unable to back up files in use.  I'm not sure why this is, but I look
> at backup logs and see it all the time.  The first lesson in the Tao of
> Backup ( http://taobackup.com/coverage.html) teaches that
> every file must be backed up.  As Windows typically has open hundreds or
> even thousands of files, precisely those most important for proper
> functioning, this is a huge issue.
>
>   The backup software we use for *nix backs up every single file on all
> mounted filesystems (with such exceptions as we may set up in a config
> file).  It produces bootable media (CD or pair of diskettes) with which one
> can install a brand new hard drive, boot the system, and reload everything
> from tape, resulting in a fully-functional system.  We don't have trouble
> backing up all the files under *nix, because the software doesn't try to
> open files in an exclusive mode.
>
>   I assume that the people who write the backup software aren't complete
> idiots, so that makes me think there may be a technical reason why Windows
> doesn't allow them to do a better job of it.  It may be necessary to have
> software that writes an entry to the Registry, forces a reboot of the
> server, and then runs in exclusive mode during the boot.  I've seen programs
> like Partition Magic do this to solve exclusive access problems.  A
> slightly-different approach might modify boot.ini (or whatever the Vista
> equivalent is) so that Windows doesn't even boot at all that time, but
> instead loads a Linux kernel to do the backup (and then reset boot.ini to
> load Windows next time).  Or the Windows loader could be chained off grub.
>
>   A lot of such details depend on the BIOS limitations.  The proverbial
> "Make it unhappen" CD, which boots into Linux, checks the backup server(s)
> to see what's available (which might require some creative use of bootp) and
> offers complete images from which to restore a system.  But you still will
> have choices to make.  Someone has to decide how many images per machine to
> retain, then at restore time decide which one to use....
>