[[PageOutline(1-6,,)]] This page is targetted at providing a more living documentation for !MondoRescue vs the current [http://www.mondorescue.org/docs/mondorescue-howto.html HOWTO]. THe current idea is this one: {{{ I think it's time for a documentation revamp phase. My goals are in order: 1/ Unify the 2 existing FAQs on the wiki Advantage: Single point of info Drawback: Breaks existing references. 2/ Keep an official doc under docbook to generate multiple formats (HTML, PDF, RTF, Text, ...) Advantage: Easier access whatever context. Put under SVN for each version for historicl purposes Drawback: Need to write/use a trac2docbook tool. Increase check phase before release. 3/ Put the whole doc on the wiki and merge with some existing pages Advantage: easy modifications. Drawback: Control of the content 4/ Allow for bi-directional modifications (docbook *and* wiki) Advantage: easy modifications with vim on my side in docbook (copy/paste, search replace, ...) Drawback: Need to write/use a docbook2trac tool. Increase check phase These points could also be more easily addressed by using a new trac version (0.11) and the [http://trac-hacks.org/wiki/TracDocBookPlugin !TracDocbookPlugin ] Now some questions: - Does that sound like a good idea ? - Who would like to volunteer to help ? (especially neither Victor nor myself are native english speakers so fixes are always welcome here). Note that if there is no volunteer, I'm must less inclined to to more than the FAQ, as it represents quite some work, and the current status is for me working well (except for some content but that could be fixed independently) The TOC I'd like to propose for the Doc is the following based on the existing HOWTO: (Each main chapter could be a dedicated Wiki page) 1. About this Guide 1.1. Purpose / Scope of this Guide 1.2. New versions of this document 1.3. Suggestions / Feedback 1.4. Aknowledgements (Updated but not touched that much) 2. QuickStart (Updated but not touched that much) 3. Overview (Updated but not touched that much) 3.1. MondoRescue 3.2. Mindi 3.3. Linux Backup 3.4. Windows Backup 3.4.1. Windows ME/95/98 3.4.2. Windows NT4/2K/XP 3.5. Mondo Rescue and Mindi Linux History 3.6. System Requirements 3.6.1. Hardware Requirements 3.6.2. Kernel Requirements 3.6.3. Software Requirements 4. Installation (This should be rewritten, IMO completely using what already exists on the Web site and the wiki) 4.1 SVN based installations 4.2 tar.gz based installations 4.3 Packages based installations 4.3.1 Deb based installations 4.3.2 RPM based installations 4.3.3 ebuild based installations 4.3.3 other packages based installations 4.4 Upstream vs distribution packages 4.4.1 Deb based installations 4.4.2 RPM based installations 4.4.3 ebuild based installations 4.4.3 other packages based installations 5. Tests (This one should be increased with a mondoarchive section and also a debugging part from the Wiki) 5.1. Testing mindi 5.2. Testing mondoarchive 5.3. Testing mondorestore 5.4. Debugging MondoRescue issues 6. mindi: mini-distribution builder 6.1. Recommendations 6.2. Command and Options 6.3. Distributions specificities 7. Backup (Updated but not touched that much) 7.1. Recommendations 7.2. Backup Commands and Options 7.2.1. Standard Example With CD-R 7.2.2. Standard Example With CD-RW 7.2.3. Standard Example With Tape 7.2.4. Standard Example With Failsafe kernel (This will be removed in 2.2.10) 7.2.5. Standard Example With Network Backup 7.3. Distributions specificities 7bis. HOWTO run mondo interactively using cron (Shouldn't that be rather a section of the previous chapter ?) (Could someone check whther this is still valid and a problem) 7.1. Overview 7.2. Introduction 7.3. Who should read this? 7.3.1. Insurance 7.3.2. Efficiency 7.4. The Problem 7.4.1. Cron's environment 7.4.2. Interactivity 7.4.3. Screen 7.5. The Solution 7.5.1. Briefly 7.5.2. In Detail 8. Compare (Updated but not touched that much) 9. Restore (Updated but not touched that much) 9.1. Overview 9.2. Tips and Tricks 9.2.1. Barebones (Nuke) Restore 9.2.2. Interactive Restore 9.2.3. Expert Restore 9.2.4. Modified partitions - Restore to a different disk geometry 9.2.5. Advanced 9.3. Distributions specificities 10. FAQ (First to be touched and re-formated) 10.1. Overview and Support 10.2. General Questions 10.4. Installation related Questions 10.4.1. Debian related questions 10.4.2. Ubuntu related questions 10.4.3. Fedora related questions 10.4.4. OpenSuSE related questions 10.4.5. Mandriva related questions .... 10.5. Environment related Questions 10.5.1. Hardware 10.5.1.1 CD/DVD/... 10.5.1.2 Tapes 10.5.1.3 USBKeys/disks/... 10.5.1.4 Raid 10.5.2. Software 10.5.2.1 Kernel 10.5.2.2 Boot Loader 10.5.2.3 Raid 10.5.2.4 LVM 10.5.2.5 FileSystems 10.5.2.6 Virtualization 10.6. mindi related Questions 10.7. mondoarchive related Questions 10.8. mondorestore related Questions 10.8.1. Booting issues 10.8.2. Kernel/Modules issues What are your feedbacks on this ? }}} = Backup = = Restoration = == Boot parameters == The file README.bootparam of the mindi package provides all the parameters one can use at boot time during a !MondoRescue restoration. === pre and post parameters === In 2.2.9, mindi introduced 2 new parameters at boot prompt, pre and post. They are used to respectively launch a script just before launching mondorestore, and after its execution. The main goal is to allow for the pre option to configure for example the HDD layout differently, and to re-configure the systems (static IP address e.g.) for the post option. If the mastering of the target systems is regular, you can even create a /etc/mindi/mindi.conf configuration file on the master, which could redefine the MINDI_ADDITIONAL_BOOT_PARAMS variable of mindi like this: {{{ cat >> /etc/mindi/mindi.conf << EOF MINDI_ADDITIONAL_BOOT_PARAMS="devfs=nomount noresume selinux=0 barrier=off udevtimeout=10 pre=/tmp/isodir/pre.sh post=/mnt/RESTORING/tmp/post.sh" EOF }}} Of course, these params can be passed at the boot prompt. And the scripts could contain as an example: {{{ cat > /path/to/nfs/pre.sh << EOF sed -i -e "/vg02/ d" /tmp/mountlist.txt sed -i -e "/vg03/ d" /tmp/mountlist.txt EOF cat > /tmp/post.sh << EOF mount /proc mount /sys vgcfgrestore vg02 vgcfgrestore vg03 sed -i -e "s/IPADDR=.*/IPADDR=x.y.z.t/" /mnt/RESTORING/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0 EOF }}} Of course, those scripts could make more dynamic requests to improve the resulting deployment. == Manual restoration == In the case of a problem during restoration, you have to know that your data are stored in an open format so that you can lways have access to them. A first way to do it is to use the mondorestore command manually on a system where it is installed, and point it to the media containing you data, and then interactively select the files you want to restore in the tree displayed and the place in which mondorestore will re-create them. A second even more manual way to do it, is to mount your media (if not tape) and extract from it with afio the content you want to restore. A quick howto would be: {{{ # mount /dev/hdb /cdrom }}} (or if you have the iso-image you use: mount -o loop mondo.iso /cdrom) Locate the wanted files in /cdrom/archive/filelist.* If you want to find the file fstab: {{{ # grep fstab /cdrom/archives/filelist.* }}} That might return something like this: {{{ /cdrom/archives/filelist.13:/etc/fstab }}} Once you know which number has your wanted files: {{{ mkdir /tmp/mondoextract ; cd /tmp/mondoextract cat /cdrom/archives/13.afio.lzo | cpio -idvm --verbose }}} If you used bzip2 instead of lzo, then unpack with: {{{ afio -ZP bzip2 -i /cdrom/archives/13.afio.bz2 }}}