|
[Date Prev][Date Next]
[Chronological]
[Thread]
[Top]
[NMLUG] Disk-to-disk copying and booting
No; in fact, if I'm absent-minded I tend to forget to remove the
backup drive from the server after the backup is completed. If someone
else reboots the machine (this is a development server, and multiple
people tend to use it and reboot it), I don't want the partitions on
the backup drive to be mounted.
So we're thinking I should edit the /etc/fstab?
Matthew
On Mon, 20 Sep 2004 19:55:50 -0700 (PDT), Moses Gold
<moegold2001@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> is there any reason that partitions on /dev/sdb or /dev/sdc need to be mounted?
>
>
> --- Ed Brown <ebrown@lanl.gov> wrote:
>
> > The problem may actually be duplicate device "labels", rather than
> > duplicate partitions. If your /etc/fstab uses "LABEL=" syntax in the
> > first column, try changing those to actual device names, i.e.,
> > /dev/sda1, etc.
> >
> > -Ed
> >
> >
> > On Mon, 2004-09-20 at 09:32, Matthew McCleary wrote:
> > > Hello,
> > >
> > > I am trying to implement a disk-to-disk backup scheme on a server.
> > > It's not the ideal method (I would have chosen a tape backup myself),
> > > but it's what I have to deal with.
> > >
> > > I've got three 146 GB ultra-320 SCSI disks. They are installed in a
> > > removable drive frame, though I do not think they are hot-swappable;
> > > thus, when I install or remove one, I have to first take the machine
> > > down.
> > >
> > > One drive has a complete Red Hat 9.0 system installed on it, which is
> > > essentially one large partition minus a small /boot partition and a 2
> > > GB swap partition. The disk is designated /dev/sda.
> > >
> > > I've been using dd if=/dev/sda of=/dev/sdb bs=1024k (and dd
> > > if=/dev/sda of=/dev/sdc bs=1024k) to make a carbon-copy of sda onto
> > > sdb (or sdc). I'm supposed to do a periodic backup of sda -- something
> > > like once a month, rotating the two backup drives monthly. Thus we
> > > would lose at most a month's worth of work, worst-case.
> > >
> > > Here, I come to the problem. To make a new backup, I just run the "dd"
> > > command again -- it doesn't care what's on the drive currently, and it
> > > will even overwrite the partition map. Quite nice. The problem,
> > > though, happens when next month rolls around and I want to make a new
> > > backup.
> > >
> > > If I take the server down and install one of the backup drives in the
> > > frame, alongside the main drive, and boot it up, Linux freaks. It sees
> > > duplicate /boot partitions (and actually, it would see duplicates of
> > > all filesystems) and refuses to mount anything it sees a duplicate of.
> > > I *think* it actually boots, but it does not mount all filesystems,
> > > which of course will cause problems.
> > >
> > > The only way I can think to get around it is to first delete the
> > > entire partition map on the backup drive (essentially, destroy the
> > > backup) and then install the blank backup disk in the frame, and then
> > > boot. That seems to be the only way I can get Linux to boot normally.
> > >
> > > Problem is, I don't have another server that I can install these
> > > drives into -- and so the only way I can destroy the partition map is
> > > by installing the drives in the very server I'm trying to back up -- a
> > > "chicken and the egg" problem.
> > >
> > > So, I'm appealing to you: what advice would you have for me to go
> > > about solving this problem? A tape backup is (unfortunately) not an
> > > option; due to policy I must do disk-to-disk backups.
> > >
> > > Thanks,
> > > Matthew
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > NMLUG mailing list
> > NMLUG@nmlug.org
> > http://www.nmlug.org/mailman/listinfo/nmlug
> >
>
> __________________________________
> Do you Yahoo!?
> Take Yahoo! Mail with you! Get it on your mobile phone.
> http://mobile.yahoo.com/maildemo
> _______________________________________________
> NMLUG mailing list
> NMLUG@nmlug.org
> http://www.nmlug.org/mailman/listinfo/nmlug
>
--
<-- .\\ -->
Matthew S. McCleary, MCP
matthew dot mccleary at gmail dot com
|
|
