From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Apr 20 14:53:29 2005 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 90DB916A4CE for ; Wed, 20 Apr 2005 14:53:29 +0000 (GMT) Received: from harmony.digitalbluesky.net (dsl093-010-046.cle1.dsl.speakeasy.net [66.93.10.46]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with SMTP id C608C43D1D for ; Wed, 20 Apr 2005 14:53:28 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from steve@digitalbluesky.net) Received: (qmail 65577 invoked by uid 89); 20 Apr 2005 14:53:25 -0000 Message-ID: <20050420145325.65576.qmail@harmony.digitalbluesky.net> From: "steve" To: "freebsd-questions@freebsd.org" Date: Wed, 20 Apr 2005 10:53:25 -0400 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Subject: Advice on backup scheme for FreeBSD 5.3 box X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 20 Apr 2005 14:53:29 -0000 I have been using FreeBSD 5.3 now for a couple months on a P4 box at home and I have been backing up the box nightly by doing a simple .tgz of the /etc, /usr/home and /var directories to a FreeBSD backup server at home (the backup server is a PI box). I’m at the point now, because I’m using that FreeBSD box to host email for myself and some production/development web pages, in case the box fails I want to be able to quickly either rebuild the contents of that box’s hard drive or move the backup server over to replace it. It took a few weeks to get the P4 box configured the way I want, so I don’t think it’s just a simple matter of popping in the 5.3 install disk and re-installing. So I’m trying to figure out a scheme to avoid more than a couple hours of downtime. I should note that in a few weeks I’ll be replacing the current PI backup server with a PIII box. My home network consists of a linksys router with a couple workstations attached and the above mentioned web and backup servers. The web and backup servers do not have cd burners, however I could transfer files to one of the workstations to burn backup disks. I would like to know in general some approaches I could take to create either some redundancy in my network at home with the two FreeBSD servers I have (each has different hardware specs) or more effectively back up the FreeBSD box doing the email/web hosting for myself. I would consider myself a moderately competent amateur system admin. I don’t work in the IT industry and I have zero knowledge of things like mirroring boxes or using applications like rsync so I’m looking for a guidance on a “simple” solution. Thank you much in advance. Steve www.digitalbluesky.net