From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Sun Jan 27 17:05:47 2008 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 6D4D816A41A for ; Sun, 27 Jan 2008 17:05:47 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from rambiusparkisanius@gmail.com) Received: from rv-out-0910.google.com (rv-out-0910.google.com [209.85.198.186]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 0383F13C45B for ; Sun, 27 Jan 2008 17:05:46 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from rambiusparkisanius@gmail.com) Received: by rv-out-0910.google.com with SMTP id l15so1348667rvb.43 for ; Sun, 27 Jan 2008 09:05:46 -0800 (PST) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=domainkey-signature:received:received:message-id:date:from:to:subject:cc:in-reply-to:mime-version:content-type:content-transfer-encoding:content-disposition:references; bh=lgGp5+QQi2yjn4+sid5R+fzWl+okJqcZgwGg4+b+ASY=; b=EBX9SSP9A5290sirsvyOE8b5eG0fld2o/jp7rvEFOE3lZxDkFVZoVkrOlsTDSEmqB3LVZrFCWQN/nc5aEj7Et8+p2CcBZwsHywb9fEGd4p+BTnPHIh9jVIz4KGs20IX7xI7+3l0kbHauxeEbnjoFj4/5SQ7JsY02MjM0HeLSWqI= DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=message-id:date:from:to:subject:cc:in-reply-to:mime-version:content-type:content-transfer-encoding:content-disposition:references; b=AtfJWxjITgXaiJrQAwz3KGz0CEOBuIJ+RS31iPtYIRQLlRLXPrDb702OFbxiameqWEX3H1O/+TQPXNU7TKuXPu8trjJ9+UdJpB7he2rB8ZQAkaXj3UMQr1Pp7LaWuWuOA3z4mssah4n59t+btrPyNpjMtJyze8aDUjUZagqSR3s= Received: by 10.140.82.38 with SMTP id f38mr2858207rvb.30.1201453545557; Sun, 27 Jan 2008 09:05:45 -0800 (PST) Received: by 10.140.161.2 with HTTP; Sun, 27 Jan 2008 09:05:45 -0800 (PST) Message-ID: <89ce7f740801270905j15b85e8cm9b81cc31493c091@mail.gmail.com> Date: Sun, 27 Jan 2008 19:05:45 +0200 From: "Ivan \"Rambius\" Ivanov" To: "Bill Moran" In-Reply-To: <20080127115808.74051c27.wmoran@potentialtech.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline References: <89ce7f740801270759l780e08aaw16710154bf1debe6@mail.gmail.com> <20080127172851.G3181@wojtek.tensor.gdynia.pl> <479CB34A.1060709@otenet.gr> <20080127115808.74051c27.wmoran@potentialtech.com> Cc: FreeBSD Questions Subject: Re: How to backup the users X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sun, 27 Jan 2008 17:05:47 -0000 On Jan 27, 2008 6:58 PM, Bill Moran wrote: > Manolis Kiagias wrote: > > > > Wojciech Puchar wrote: > > >> Hello, > > >> > > >> I am running a small FreeBSD server and I have a a couple of users > > >> ssh'ing to it. I want to wipe the server out and reinstall FreeBSD on > > >> it, but I want to preserve the users' credentials. Can you please > > >> advise me how to back them up? > > > > > > /home/* > > > /etc/master.passwd > > > /var/cron/tabs/* > > > /var/mail/* > > > > > > possibly other files. > > > > > > > > > but format+reinstall is when you have windows, with unix there is no > > > need to. > > > > > > > > You might as well save the whole /etc, you will probably need other conf > > files and surely you would like to have /etc/passwd and /etc/group > > In fact, I would also backup the whole /usr/local/etc to get all the > > configuration settings for my services and so on. > > A good, general rule of thumb for backing up a system is: > /etc > /usr/local/etc > /home > /var > > /var is the wildcard here ... /etc and /usr/local/etc are generally very > small. /home can be huge, but if it is, it's probably because there is > a lot of important data there. > > But /var can be large with a lot of stuff that you may not want to back > up. Do you need /var/log, for example? > > Frankly, if you have enough space to back up, I recommend you back up the > entire system and restore selectively. Do you have, for example, a > database in /usr/local/pgsql? If you're asking this question, you're > probably better off safe than sorry. I do not have any databases servers on the machine. In fact, it hosts only a cvs repository and a web server and I have already backed them up. I was only unsure how to proceed with the users backup. Regards Rambius -- Tangra Mega Rock: http://www.radiotangra.com