optimum solution for backing up full systems

[happytoday]

I have many down machines into my site and I discovered that I needed
certain original DVD which could not be got easily.
What is the optimum solution for backing up full systems(solaris10-
Sparc,x86) after new installations ?
Is it flash archives or what ?

[John D Groenveld]

In article <f2bf1166-f1b7-4f59...@m20g2000vbf.googlegroups.com>,

happytoday <ehabaz...@gmail.com> wrote:
>I have many down machines into my site and I discovered that I needed
>certain original DVD which could not be got easily.

You should backup your installation media.
Joerg Schilling's readcd(1) is handy for creating ISO images
of optical media.
<URL:http://cdrecord.berlios.de/old/private/cdrecord.html>
It is available via S11's IPS:
<URL:http://pkg.oracle.com/solaris/release/en/search.shtml?token=readcd&action=Search>

>What is the optimum solution for backing up full systems(solaris10-
>Sparc,x86) after new installations ?
>Is it flash archives or what ?

I have not recovered via flash archives but I have with ufsdumps
and zfs snapshots once booted from installation media.

Here is the Flash Archive docs for S10:
<URL:http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E23823_01/html/E23803/index.html>

Happy hacking,
John
groe...@acm.org

[Cydrome Leader]

If you're backing up a fresh installation, a flar is great.

If want to backup a machine that's been used for a while, there's really
no replacement for something like netbackup, of if you want free,
something like bacula.

arcserve, arkeia and amanda are all pure trash.

[David Combs]

In article <jf5n3j$k9s$3...@reader1.panix.com>,

Cydrome Leader <pres...@MUNGEpanix.com> wrote:
>
>If you're backing up a fresh installation, a flar is great.
>
>If want to backup a machine that's been used for a while, there's really
>no replacement for something like netbackup, of if you want free,
>something like bacula.
>
>arcserve, arkeia and amanda are all pure trash.

QUESTION 1: What degree of agreement about the above?

QUESTION 2: What difference if he's using ZFS?


Thanks,

David

[Andrew Gabriel]

In article <jg7l5k$9so$1...@reader1.panix.com>,

dkc...@panix.com (David Combs) writes:
> In article <jf5n3j$k9s$3...@reader1.panix.com>,
> Cydrome Leader <pres...@MUNGEpanix.com> wrote:
>>
>>If you're backing up a fresh installation, a flar is great.
>>
>>If want to backup a machine that's been used for a while, there's really
>>no replacement for something like netbackup, of if you want free,
>>something like bacula.
>>
>>arcserve, arkeia and amanda are all pure trash.
>
>
> QUESTION 1: What degree of agreement about the above?

I've always managed to produce my own backup tools.
It depends how much time and skill you can throw at it,
verses how much money and time you throw at a 3rd-party
product. The skill bit is important though, as backups
which turn out to be unrecoverable are a complete
disaster.

When I was managing company infrastructure, my normal
rule for introducing a new server was, install it,
install all the apps, add it to the backup schedule,
allow it to do it's first backup, wipe all the disks
clean, restore it all from the backup, check it's all
working, and only then can it be considered for going
into service.

You also need to periodically test it's still working.
When you get a new server in, before you start setting
it up, try doing a bare metal restore of one of your
other critical systems onto it, just to check you
still can.

Also, I encouraged users to ask for individual file
restores rather than cursing them for doing so - that
was also to periodically check backups (and individual
file restores tended to be a much more frequent
requirement than bare metal restores, before ZFS
snapshots existed).

> QUESTION 2: What difference if he's using ZFS?

Snapshots mean users can self-service their own
individual file restores. Whatever you use for bare
metal restores will need to know about ZFS filesystems.
There's a list of commercial software which does at:
http://hub.opensolaris.org/bin/view/Community+Group+zfs/faq#HWhichthirdpartybackupproductssupportZFS3F

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]