source: MondoRescue/branches/3.3/mondo-doc/mondoarchive.8

Last change on this file was 3885, checked in by Bruno Cornec, 8 weeks ago

Removes support for ia64 depracated in upstream kernel, and elilo

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21.TH mondoarchive 8 "PBDATE" "Mondo Rescue PBVER-rPBREV"
22
23.SH NAME
24mondoarchive \- a backup / disaster\-recovery tool.
25
26.SH SYNOPSIS
27.B mondoarchive \-O
28[
29.I options
30] : backup your machine
31.br
32.B mondoarchive \-V
33[
34.I options
35] : verify your backup
36
37.SH DESCRIPTION
38.PP
39.I mondoarchive
40backs up a subset of your files, your entire filesystem, or even images of
41non-Linux filesystems to CD's, tape, ISO images or an NFS mount. In the event of
42catastrophic data loss, you will be able to restore everything, taking a
43machine from bare metal to its original state if necessary.
44
45.PP
46With
47.BR \-O ,
48it backs up your filesystem to CD, tape, ISO images or NFS share. Boot media
49or a special boot CD will be created to allow you to restore from bare metal if
50necessary.
51
52.PP
53With
54.BR \-V ,
55it verifies the backup against the live filesystem. This option may be used in
56combination with
57.BR \-O
58to verify a backup after its creation, or on its own to see how much the live
59filesystem has changed since the backup was made.
60
61.PP
62Call mondoarchive
63.BR without
64.BR flags
65to make it auto-detect as many settings as possible, ask you politely for the
66rest, and then backup and verify your OS or a subset thereof.
67
68.PP
69To restore data, either run
70.I mondorestore
71from the command line or boot from the emergency media generated during
72the backup process. The latter will come in handy if a gremlin wipes your hard
73disk.
74
75.SH BACKUP MEDIA
76.TP 13
77You must specify one of the following:-
78
79.TP
80.BI "\-c "
81Use optical drive (CD/DVD-R/RW) as backup device and its (write-once or many) disks as backup media.
82Note that calling mondoarchive
83.B using sudo when writing to DVDs will fail
84because growisofs does not support this \- see the growisofs manpage for
85details.
86
87.TP
88.BI "\-w "
89Mondo will wipe media before writing to them.
90
91.TP
92.BI "\-p " prefix
93Use
94.B prefix
95to generate the name of your ISO images.
96By default, mondoarchive names images mondorescue-1.iso, mondorescue-2.iso, ...
97Using
98.B \-p machine
99will name your images machine-1.iso, machine-2.iso, ...
100
101.TP
102.BI "\-i "
103Use ISO files (CD images) as backup media. This is good for backing up your
104system to a spare hard drive. The
105.B \-n
106switch is a wiser choice if you plan to restore from a remote filesystem.
107
108.TP
109.BI "\-n " mount
110Use files residing on a remote share as backup media.
111.I mount
112is the remote mount-point, e.g. 'nfs://192.168.1.3/home/nfs'
113for my file server. If not mounted, mondoarchive will do it for you. So nice ;-)
114If your NFS server only accept write from a backup user, you may specify it with the syntax:
115.B nfs://user@machine/mount/path
116and mondoarchive will try to do its best to support it.
117Other protocols are available such as sshfs for fuse SSH based filesystem
118mount, with the same syntax e.g. 'sshfs://user@192.168.1.3/home/nfs' and
119smbfs (aka cifs) for SaMBa or Windows based filesystem mount.
120.B WARNING for NFS you may want to use no_root_squash in /etc/exports eg:
121/mnt/nfs-share 192.168.x.y(rw,sync,no_subtree_check,no_root_squash)
122
123.TP
124.BI "\-t "
125Use tape streamer as backup device and its tapes as backup media.
126
127.TP
128.BI "\-U "
129Use a generic USB device as backup device. Use this if you want to write
130your backup to a USB key or USB disk, which will be make bootable.
131The USB device should be attached to the system in order for this to work and
132its device name passed to the
133.BR \-d
134option. Do not use the partition name, but the raw device name (/dev/sda e.g.)
135.B WARNING: All the data on the related device will be removed.
136
137.TP
138.BI "\-u "
139Use a generic streaming device as backup device. Use this if you want to write
140your backup to a device that is not directly support by mondoarchive. This will
141send the data directly to a raw device.
142.B For experienced users only.
143
144.SH MAJOR OPTIONS
145.TP 13
146.BI "\-D "
147Make a differential backup: examine the filesystem and find which files have
148changed since the last full backup was carried out. Backup only those files.
149
150.TP
151.BI "\-E " "\*(lqdir|...\*(rq"
152Exclude dir(s) from backup. The dirs should be separated with a pipe and surrounded by quotes.
153This is the prefered and recommended option when doing partial archiving.
154Note that mondo automatically excludes removable media (/mnt/floppy,
155/mnt/cdrom, /proc, /sys, /run, /tmp). For example, if you are backing up to an NFS mount but you
156do not want to include the contents of the mount in a backup, exclude your
157local mount-point with this switch. It will also work with partitions, e.g.
158/dev/sdd4 if you have a peculiar SCSI zip drive which insists on showing up in
159the mountlist. NB: If you exclude /dev/sdd4 then the /dev entry itself will
160still be backed up, even though the mountlist entry will be suppressed.
161N.B.: If you specify a directory with a final / its content will be
162archived so it won't do what you expect.
163You may also specify full disk device to this option as with \-E
164\*(lq/dev/sda|/dev/cciss/c0d0\*(rq
165N.B.: If for example you have a disk /dev/mapper/vgsan-lvdir mounted on a /mnt mountpoint
166excluding the /dev/mapper/vgsan-lvdir device prevents mondorestore to touch the LVM structure
167of this device at restore time (no pv|vg|lvcreate will occur).
168However, if you exclude the mount point /mnt, the LVM structure will be re-created at restore time.
169ALL DATA WILL THEN BE LOST ON THIS DEVICE. Use what is required for your configuration.
170
171.TP
172.BI "\-I " "\*(lqdir|...\*(rq"
173Include dirs(s) in backup. The dirs should be separated with a pipe and surrounded by quotes.
174This option is mainly used to perform tests
175in order to reduce the time taken by the archiving operation.
176The default backup dir is \*(lq/\*(rq but you may specify alternatives,
177e.g. \-I \*(lq/home|/etc\*(rq to override that.
178You may also specify full disk device to this option as with \-I
179\*(lq/dev/sda|/dev/cciss/c0d0\*(rq
180N.B.: When using the
181.BR \-I
182option with the
183.BR \-E
184option, the \-E content should be subdirectories of those mentioned in
185the \-I only, as \-I takes precedence.
186
187.TP
188.BI "\-J " "file"
189Specify an explicit list of files and directories to include in a plain text file, one item
190(file or directory) per line. Beware that directories placed in that file are not managed recursively contrary to what is done with the \-I option.
191
192.TP
193.BI "\-N"
194Exclude all mounted network filesystems. This currently means NFS, SMB, Coda, MVFS, AFS
195OCFS and Netware. In other words, only backup the local hard disk(s).
196
197.TP
198.BI "\-d " "dev|dir"
199Specify the backup device (CD/tape/USB) or directory (NFS/ISO).
200For CD-R[W] drives, this is the device file such as '/dev/sr0'.
201For tape users, this is the tape streamers /dev entry, e.g. '/dev/st0'.
202For USB users, this is the device name of your key or external disk, e.g. /dev/sdc
203For ISO users, this is the directory where the ISO images are stored.
204For NFS users, this is the subdirectory under the NFS mount where the backups are stored.
205The default for ISO and NFS is '/var/cache/mondo'.
206
207.TP
208.BI "\-g "
209GUI mode. Without this switch, the screen output of mondoarchive is suitable
210for processing by an 'expect' wrapper, enabling the user to backup nightly via
211a cron job. However, if you want to run this program with an attractive but
212non-cron-friendly interface then use '\-g'.
213
214.TP
215.BI "\-k " "path"
216Full path name of the kernel to use. Generally your native kernel should be
217found and work appropriately. Otherwise, you may use this option to point to
218another one. E.g. '\-k /boot/myvmlinuz'.
219
220.TP
221.BI "\-m "
222Manual (not self-retracting) CD trays are often found on laptops. If you are
223a laptop user, or you experience problems with mondo then please call mondoarchive
224with this switch.
225
226.TP
227.BI "\-o "
228Use OBDR (One Button Disaster Recovery) type of tapes.
229By default, tapes are not bootable. With this flag, tape will be made bootable
230following the OBDR format.
231
232.TP
233.BI "\-s " "size"
234How much can each of your backup media hold? You may use 'm' and 'g' on the end
235of the number, e.g. '700m' for an extra-large CD-R. You no longer need to
236specify the size of your cartridges if you are backing up to tape.
237
238.TP
239.BI "\-x " "'dev ...'"
240Specify non-Linux partitions which you want to backup, e.g. NTFS or BeOS.
241
242
243.SH MINOR OPTIONS
244.TP 13
245.BI "\-[0-9] "
246Specify the compression level. Default is 3. No compression is 0.
247
248.TP
249.BI "\-A " "command"
250This command will be called after each CD/NFS/ISO file is written. It is useful
251if you want to do something with an ISO after creating it, e.g. write it to a
252CD burner using a non-standard command.
253.B \-A
254understands two tokens \- _ISO_ and _CD#_ - which will be translated into the
255ISO's filename and its index number (1, 2, ...) respectively. So, you could use
256.I \-A 'foobackup _ISO_; rm \-f _ISO_'
257to feed each ISO to some magical new backup tool.
258
259.TP
260.BI "-B " "command"
261This command will be called before each CD/NFS/ISO file is written. See
262.B \-A
263for more information.
264
265.TP
266.BI "\-F "
267Do not retry when a command failed but just exits. This is useful for an
268automated mode launched from cron where you want to avoid filling your logs
269due to an answer which is impossible to give.
270
271.TP
272.BI "\-G "
273Use gzip, the standard and quicker Linux compression engine, instead of bzip2.
274
275.TP
276.BI "\-H "
277When you boot from the tape/CD, your hard drive will be wiped and the archives
278will be restored. Your decision to boot from the tape/CD will be taken as
279consent. No further permission will be sought.
280.B Use with caution.
281
282.TP
283.BI "\-L "
284Use lzo, a fast compression engine, instead of bzip2. You may find lzo on
285Mondo's website or via FreshMeat. WARNING! Some versions of LZO are unstable.
286
287.TP
288.BI "\-M " "max-size"
289Gives the maximum size of a biggie file (by default 64 MB). The value should
290be given in kB. Example use \-M 128000 to have biggie being more than 128 MB.
291
292.TP
293.BI "\-Y "
294Use lzma/xz, the new quicker and optimized Linux compression engine, instead of bzip2.
295
296.TP
297.BI "\-R "
298Star is an alternative to afio. Can be useful for distributions considering
299that afio is not free enough due to its age and old licenses (wrongly in our
300opinion). Star can be used to have a better support of sparse file compared to
301afio. Also star supports natively POSIX ACLs, whereas afio requires a special
302additional handlling.
303
304.TP
305.BI "\-P " "tarball"
306Post-nuke tarball. If you boot into Nuke Mode and everything is restored
307successfully then the
308.I post-nuke
309script will be sought and executed if found. This is useful for post-restore
310customization. It is assumed that the tarball (.tar.gz format) will contain not
311just the
312.I post-nuke
313script (or binary, or whatever it is) but also any files it requires.
314
315.TP
316.BI "\-S " "path"
317Specify the full pathname of the scratchdir, the directory where ISO
318images are built before being archived. If you have plenty of RAM and
319want to use a ramdisk for scratch space, specify its path here.
320
321.TP
322.BI "\-T " "path"
323Specify the full pathname of the tempdir, the directory where temporary
324files (other than ISO images being assembled) are stored. See
325.B \-S
326
327.TP
328.BI "\-b "
329Specify the internal block size used by the tape drive. This is usually 32K but
330some drives just don't like that. They should but they don't. That's what
331happens when tape drive vendors don't talk to kernel driver writers. Try 512 or
33216384.
333
334.TP
335.BI "\-e "
336Don't eject the CD or tape when backing up...
337
338.TP
339.BI "\-f " "device"
340Specify the drive on which your Master Boot Record lives. Usually, this is
341discovered automatically. A good use case may be when you have software RAID.
342
343.TP
344.BI "\-l " "GRUB|LILO|RAW"
345Specify the boot loader. By default, your environment is examined and
346the boot loader can usually be discovered. If you specify RAW then the MBR will
347be backed up and restored byte-for-byte without any analysis. It is likely that
348you will also need to specify the boot device with \-f <dev>.
349GRUB is mandatory for now for UEFI systems.
350
351.TP
352.BI "\-Q "
353Give more detailed information about the boot loader.
354
355.TP
356.BI "\-K " "loglevel"
357Specify the loglevel. Use 99 for full debug. Standard debug level is 4.
358
359.TP
360.BI "\-v "
361Gives mondoarchive version.
362
363.TP
364.BI "\-z "
365Use extended attributes and acl for each file and store them in the
366backup media. Use this option if you use SElinux e.g. but it will slow
367down backup and restore time of course.
368
369
370.SH DIAGNOSTICS
371Mondo generates one additional, and extremely important file:
372.BI /var/log/mondoarchive.log.
373When seeking technical support, attach this file to your email.
374
375
376.SH FILES
377.IR /var/log/mondoarchive.log
378This log contains important information required to analyse mondoarchive
379problem reports. Did I already said that it's highly recommended to send this file with
380support questions.
381
382.SH ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
383.IR MONDO_SHARE
384This variable is passed to the environment by mondoarchive so that
385mindi is aware that it's called from it and act accordingly. It contains
386the shared directory for the mondo package.
387
388.IR PATH
389This variable is modified internally by mondoarchive so that /sbin:/usr/sbin:/usr/local/sbin
390are appended to it systematically in order to find the required tools.
391
392.IR TMPDIR
393This variable is used, if defined, as the target directory to create
394all the temporary files needed during the operation (not the scratch files)
395
396.IR MRTMP
397This variable is used, if defined and if TMPDIR is not defined, as the target
398directory to create all the temporary files needed during the operation
399(not the scratch files)
400
401With none of these variables defined, nor the -T option on the CLI then
402/tmp is used for temporary files.
403
404.IR MRSCRATCH
405This variable is used, if defined, as the target directory to create all the
406scratch files needed during the operation such as the archives (not the temp
407files). If this variable is not defined, /tmp is used for scratch files if
408using the CLI without -S option specified, and the largest partition available
409is proposed in the GUI if that one is used.
410
411.SH NOTES
412A link to Mondo's HTML-based manual (by Bruno Cornec, Mikael Hultgren,
413Cafeole, Randy Delphs, Stan Benoit, and Hugo Rabson) may be found at
414.I http://www.mondorescue.org/docs.shtml
415\- or in
416.I /usr/share/doc/mondo-x.xx
417on your hard drive.
418
419.SH BUGS
420It is recommend that your system has more than 64 MB ram. SCSI device order
421change with nuke can have unexpected results. It is recommended you use expert
422mode with drastic hardware reconfigurations.
423
424.SH EXAMPLES
425
426.BI ISO:
427Backup to a directory; note that /mnt/foo's contents will be backed up except
428for its ISO's unless you exclude it, as follows:
429.br
430.I "mondoarchive -Oi -d /mnt/foo -E '/mnt/foo|/mnt/foo2' -p \`hostname\`-\`date +%Y-%m-%d\`"
431
432Backup to ISO's non-interactively, e.g. as a job running in /etc/cron.daily:
433.br
434.I "mkdir -p /bkp/\`date +%A\`; mondoarchive -Oi -9 -d /bkp/\`date +%A\` -E /bkp"
435
436.BI DVD:
437Backup machine using DVD Media:
438.br
439.I "mondoarchive -OVr -d /dev/scd0 -gF -s 4480m"
440
441.BI TAPE:
442Backup to tape, using lzo compression (WARNING - can be unstable):
443.br
444.I "mondoarchive -Ot -d /dev/st0 -L"
445
446Verify existing tape backup which was made with lzo compression:-
447.br
448.I "mondoarchive -Vt -d /dev/st0 -L -g"
449
450Backup to tape, using max compression:
451.br
452.I "mondoarchive -Ot -9 -d /dev/st0 "
453
454.BI CD-R:
455Backup to 700MB CD-R disks using a 16x CD burner:
456.br
457.I "mondoarchive -Oc 16 -s 700m -g"
458
459Verify existing CD-R or CD-RW backup (works for either):-
460.br
461.I "mondoarchive -Vc 16"
462
463.BI CD-RW:
464Backup to 650MB CD-RW disks using a 4x CD ReWriter:
465.br
466.I "mondoarchive -Ow 4"
467
468Backup just your /home and /etc directory to 650MB CD-RW disks using a 4x CD
469ReWriter:
470.br
471.I "mondoarchive -Ow 4 -I \*(lq/home|/etc\*(rq"
472
473.BI NFS:
474Backup to an NFS mount:
475.br
476.I "mondoarchive -On nfs://192.168.1.2/home/nfs -d /Monday -E /mnt/nfs"
477
478Verify existing NFS backup:-
479.br
480.I "mondoarchive -Vn nfs://192.168.1.2/home/nfs -d /Monday"
481
482.BI USB:
483Backup to your 4GB USB key, using gzip compression:
484.br
485.I "mondoarchive -OU -d /dev/sda -s 4g -G"
486
487.BI RAID:
488Backup machine to a Software Raid mount point, iso size 700mb:
489.br
490.I "mondoarchive -O -s 700m -d /mnt/raid"
491
492
493.SH "SEE ALSO"
494afio(1), bzip2(1), find(1), mindi(8), mondorestore(8).
495.SH AUTHORS
496Bruno Cornec (lead-development)
497.I "bruno_at_mondorescue.org"
498.br
499.SH ORIGINAL AUTHORS
500Hugo Rabson (original author)
501.I "hugo.rabson_at_mondorescue.org"
502.br
503Jesse Keating (original RPM packager)
504.I "hosting_at_j2solutions.net"
505.br
506Stan Benoit (testing)
507.I "troff_at_nakedsoul.org"
508.br
509Mikael Hultgren (docs)
510.I "mikael_hultgren_at_gmx.net"
511.br
512Andree Leidenfrost (co-developer)
513.I "aleidenf_at_bigpond.net.au"
514.br
515See mailing list at http://www.mondorescue.org for technical support.
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