From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Sep 3 14:00:21 2003 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 BB54D16A4BF for ; Wed, 3 Sep 2003 14:00:21 -0700 (PDT) Received: from oahu.WURLDLINK.NET (oahu.wurldlink.net [66.193.144.7]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id F0F8C43FBD for ; Wed, 3 Sep 2003 14:00:20 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from vince@oahu.WURLDLINK.NET) Received: from oahu.WURLDLINK.NET (vince@localhost.WURLDLINK.NET [127.0.0.1]) by oahu.WURLDLINK.NET (8.12.9/8.12.9) with ESMTP id h83Kw9Ot051132; Wed, 3 Sep 2003 10:58:16 -1000 (HST) Received: from localhost (vince@localhost)h83Kw8GH051129; Wed, 3 Sep 2003 10:58:08 -1000 (HST) Date: Wed, 3 Sep 2003 10:58:08 -1000 (HST) From: Vincent Poy To: Mark In-Reply-To: <200309031312.H83DCO2K062567@asarian-host.net> Message-ID: <20030903104148.I64375-100000@oahu.WURLDLINK.NET> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org cc: Mike Tancsa Subject: Re: Ghost for FreeBSD 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, 03 Sep 2003 21:00:21 -0000 On Wed, 3 Sep 2003, Mark wrote: > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Vincent Poy" > To: "Mike Tancsa" > Cc: > Sent: Wednesday, September 03, 2003 2:22 PM > Subject: Re: Ghost for FreeBSD > > > > cd /mnt/root > > /sbin/dump -L -f- /|restore -rf- > > cd /mnt/var > > /sbin/dump -L -f- /var|restore -rf- > > cd /mnt/usr > > /sbin/dump -L -f- /usr|restore -rf- > > I have heard this before, but I never understand this part. :) How does > creating a /mnt/root directory, and restoring in that directory get my / > slice back? Then the restored data will just sit in /mnt/root! What good > does it there? Well, the purpose of that is so that your actually HD that's being used fails, you can just plug the second drive in as the primary drive and boot from it. Since it's basically the clone of the original drive. > Or should I create /mnt/root as partition, about equal in size to the root > partition, and then restore therein, and do the old switcheroo in /etc/fstab > later, to make it the root partion? My /mnt/root and / are the same size and the /mnt/usr and /usr are the same size. The /mnt stuff just needs to be the same size or a larger size. I don't have a separate /var partition but there are two ways to use what's on mount. One is to edit the /mnt/root/etc/fstab to point to the new device names and assuming you put in the FreeBSD Boot Manager, one of the Fn keys as shown on the screen will allow you to choose the drive. If you don't choose, then it's your original drive that gets booted up. The second method is really if the first drive dies for whatever reason, the second drive will be bootable with the last dump/restore that is done. In my case, I do the dump/restore at 4AM every morning. I needed to do this since I'm running on a Dell Inspiron 8200 notebook and the last time, the IBM 60GB 2.5" 5400rpm 2MB Cache TravelStar HD died, I lost everything except the /etc directory... I've already verified this works as my / and /usr is on a Fujitsu 60GB 2.5" 4200rpm 2MB Cache HD while I replaced it with a Hitachi 60GB 2.5" 7200rpm 8MB Cache HD for the primary drive. After the dump/restore is done, I swapped the drives and added another identical Hitachi drive for the second drive so now I'm running on the new drive and dump/restoring to a second identical drive while keeping the Fujitsu as a spare. This is what my df output looks like as the available space is different due to the primary drive having changes after 4AM Pacific Daylight Time. root@bigbang [12:04am][/home/vince] >> df Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Avail Capacity Mounted on /dev/ad0s1a 126702 84312 32254 72% / devfs 1 1 0 100% /dev /dev/ad0s1d 56376586 4100320 47766140 8% /usr procfs 4 4 0 100% /proc /dev/ad2s1a 126702 84394 32172 72% /mnt/root /dev/ad2s1d 56376586 4123490 47742970 8% /mnt/usr > I have successfully restored /var and /usr, on occasion; but that is rather > easy, as they can be unmounted. With the root partition, that is not > possible, of course. Short of having to switch cables on harddisks, is there > a software method that will allow me to restore/switch the root partion? Well, if you used the FreeBSD Boot Manager - prior to FreeBSD even booting up, it will show a menu. With Fn like: F1 FreeBSD F5 FreeBSD F1 will boot by default If you hit F5, it will boot the second drive but make sure the second drive's /etc/fstab has the correct device names since it should goto the wherever you had the /mnt stuff. > Thanks! > > - Mark Cheers, Vince - vince@WURLDLINK.NET - Vice President ________ __ ____ Unix Networking Operations - FreeBSD-Real Unix for Free / / / / | / |[__ ] WurldLink Corporation / / / / | / | __] ] San Francisco - Honolulu - Hong Kong / / / / / |/ / | __] ] HongKong Stars/Gravis UltraSound Mailing Lists Admin /_/_/_/_/|___/|_|[____] Almighty1@IRC - oahu.DAL.NET Hawaii's DALnet IRC Network Server Admin