hard drive - backup strategy for Linux Machine configured as LAN gateway

06
2014-04
  • aka_learner

    I am total newbie to Linux Disk and backup management tasks, but I need to backup a CentOS 6 Linux Box configured as gateway for a small LAN.

    This box has been already been configured for gateway settings with applications like:-

    1. shorewall
    2. squid proxy
    3. dansguardian
    4. OpenVPN and
    5. SAMAB4 as active directory
    6. painfully installed drivers for cheap external USB Ethernet and wireless ports

    Now, To create a backup machine similar to this gateway, it would be long and painful to create a new Linux box, configuring above applications, dependencies, binaries and required drivers from scratch.

    I looked up for backing up using "dd" by creating an image of entire hard disk and restoring it onto target machine (I guess which might also take long time for large hard disks to create an full image), but its prerequisites says target hard disk space should be equal or more in size, same case is with clonezilla (please correct if wrong).

    But the new ongoing backup machine is only having 100 GB of hard disk space and the gateway machine is around 250GB~, BTW the actual used space so far on gateway machine is only 50 GB.

    Is There any workaround by which I can restore a complete image of gateway box into 100 GB hard disk?

    Also any suggestions for setting up incremental backup for data sync between these two box once backup machine ready?

    stepwise instructions to solve this scenario would be very helpful.

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    Backup Strategy
  • LatishS

    I am thinking of scripting together a automated backup script which will do a "system state" backup along with the normal data backup.

    1. Backup MBR. (am using a MBR tool called head).
    2. Backup System state by doing a full export of the registry

    Do i need to consider something else for a system state backup ?

    Any help is appreciated. Thanx in advance.


    • Related Answers
  • John T

    From this ServerFault question, a system state backup contains:

    • System Registry
    • COM + Database
    • Certificate Services
    • Active Directory
    • SysVol
    • IIS Metabase

    Some of these may not be included if you do not have the specified service installed.

    Instead of reinventing the wheel, you may want to consider these easier options of performing a system state backup.

  • Dentrasi

    As John says, there is more to a system state than just the registry. It would be much simpler just to use ntbackup (which can easily be scripted), and to select the components you want in there than trying to do it manually.

    If you're doing a fresh install, you don't need to backup the MBR unless you dual boot.

  • pcapademic

    you'll need much more than the MBR and the registry for a "system state" backup.

    system files might get corruped and or infected. in this case, restoring only the registry or the master boot record won't do you much good.

    you may revise your backup strategy, an 'automated' backup for the entire system bears the risk of trashing a perfectly good backup with infected or corruped files.

    my recommendation: EASEUS Todo Backup is a FREE data backup software and disaster recovery solutions help you back up hard disk drive, system, partitions, files, etc.