Howto: Backup and restore your system!

[shizeon]

Did you try to restore some archived files from the FAT32 and see if the permission were correct?

Yes, did a test restore tonight and all permissions and ownerships were maintained.

[cypah]

After messing up the xwindow config trying to increase resolution on my ancient 'real 3d starfighter vid card, I got xwindow failure and had a command line. I went looking for how to restore and found this guide...I tried to follow this guide to restore my Badger 5.10 I only sort of understand the partitioner and finally agreed to allow it to format the Root and Swap partitions since it seemed to be in a loop with that, hoping that would leave all data on the #3 & #4 intact.

I did get the error messages complaining it was a fatal error for Grub I asked it to finish and it did. Unmounted the installation cd and booted but then is sitting right now saying "Grub errow, please wait .. error 15.

I am stuck, still hoping I will not have to total install and lose all my mail on local machine, important but not critical.
thanks Herb

[dtoader]

####################
# NFS Server Install
####################

# Create the backup directory
mkdir /backup

# Install NFS server
sudo apt-get install nfs-kernel-server nfs-common portmap
# When configuring portmap do not bind loopback.
# If you do you can either edit /etc/default/portmap by hand or run:
sudo dpkg-reconfigure portmap
sudo /etc/init.d/portmap restart

# Create a share
sudo echo -e "/backup\t192.168.1.0/24(ro,sync,nohide) ## use tab, not spaces" >/etc/exports

# save this file and then in a terminal type
sudo /etc/init.d/nfs-kernel-server restart

# Also after making changes to /etc/exports in a terminal you must type
sudo exportfs -ra

####################################
# Save system settings on NFS server
####################################

fdisk -l > /backup/`date +%Y%m%d`_`hostname`_partition_table
cp /etc/fstab /backup/`date +%Y%m%d`_`hostname`_fstab
cp /proc/mounts /backup/`date +%Y%m%d`_`hostname`_mounts
cp /etc/mtab /backup/`date +%Y%m%d`_`hostname`_mtab
cp /boot/grub/menu.lst /backup/`date +%Y%m%d`_`hostname`_menu.lst
# Send everything to cpio except the /backup directory and /dev files
(cd / ; find . -xdev -wholename ./backup -prune -o -print | cpio -voc > /backup/`date +%Y%m%d`_`hostname`.cpio.gz)

########
# Client
########

# Boot using the LiveCD.
# Set the root password.
sudo passwd
# Login as root. This is not necessary. I'm lazy and don't like to sudo everything.
su
# Create your partitions manually
# See above line containing /backup/`date +%Y%m%d`_`hostname`_fstab
fdisk /dev/hdc

################################################## ############################
# My server/original 20070512_original-desktop_partition_table file looks like:
Disk /dev/hda: 60.0 GB, 60081831936 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 7304 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 * 1 7117 57167271 83 Linux
/dev/hda2 7118 7304 1502077+ 5 Extended
/dev/hda5 7118 7304 1502046 82 Linux swap / Solaris
################################################## ############################

# The client system has /dev/hdc as the hard drive label.
# It should look something like below. You need to fill in the x's
# with valid values that will get you in the ballpark for the client
# system. Your units could be different so might need to use a different
# number of blocks also.
################################################## ############################
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hdc1 * 1 xxxx 57167271 83 Linux
/dev/hdc2 xxxx xxxx 1502077+ 5 Extended
/dev/hdc5 xxxx xxxx 1502046 82 Linux swap / Solaris
################################################## ############################

# After partitions are created, make filesystem
mkswap /dev/hdc5
mkfs.ext3 /dev/hdc1
mkdir /mnt/hdc1 /mnt/nfs
mount /dev/hdc1 /mnt/hdc1
mount 192.168.1.50:/backup /mnt/nfs

# Check to see if the nfs share shows up ok.
cd /mnt/nfs
ls

# Now, you can proceed to unzip the backup into your new system
(cd /mnt/hdc1 ; cpio -vicdm < /mnt/nfs/20070512_original-desktop.cpio.gz)

# Change the hostname and empty existing ip/hw address info.
# This is done in the chroot environment.
chroot /mnt/hdc1
mount -t proc /proc proc

# Change the hostname of the client machines. For example:
sed -i 's/original-desktop/copy-desktop/' /etc/hostname
sed -i 's/192.168.1.50/192.168.1.51/' /etc/network/interfaces
# Change drive assignments.
sed -i 's/hda1/hdc1/' /etc/fstab
sed -i 's/hda5/hdc5/' /etc/fstab
sed -i 's/hdc /hda /' /etc/fstab
sed -i 's/hda1/hdc1/' /boot/grub/menu.lst

# Now, I exit the chroot environment
umount /proc
Ctrl+D or type: exit

# Now we are back to the LiveCD environment.
# Now install grub.
grub

grub> find /sbin/init
grub> root (hd0,0)
grub> setup (hd0)
grub> quit

# Unmount all.
cd /
umount -a

# Restart the system.
# You might need to reconfigure networking.
# After rebooting, look at the network interfaces
ifconfig

# If your system has reassigned your NIC as eth1
# (suppose you expected it to be eth0 as before)
vi /etc/network/interfaces
# Reverse eth0 for eth1 and vice versa.

################################################

# Before
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

auto eth0
iface eth0 inet static
address 192.168.1.51
netmask 255.255.255.0
gateway 192.168.1.1

auto eth1
iface eth1 inet dhcp

auto eth2
iface eth2 inet dhcp

auto ath0
iface ath0 inet dhcp

auto wlan0
iface wlan0 inet dhcp

################################################

# After
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

auto eth1
iface eth1 inet static
address 192.168.1.51
netmask 255.255.255.0
gateway 192.168.1.1

auto eth0
iface eth0 inet dhcp

auto eth2
iface eth2 inet dhcp

auto ath0
iface ath0 inet dhcp

auto wlan0
iface wlan0 inet dhcp

################################################

[dtoader]

The above instructions worked for me on my home network.
Using Ubuntu 6.06.1

Questions or comments are welcomed.

[jhenager]

The only error message I got was:
tar: /: file changed as we read it
root@ubuntu-desktop:/#

but no worries. I understand that "/" changed, because I wrote to it by creating backup.tgz.

Great writeup.
Highly recommended procedure.

[rsvirani]

Is there no graphical backup program that supports incremental backups and scheduling for automated backups?

[kilou]

Is there no graphical backup program that supports incremental backups and scheduling for automated backups?

sbackup does that AFAIK

http://onlyubuntu.blogspot.com/2007/...tem-using.html

[vyoufinder]

This backup method didn't work for me for several reasons. First, I kept getting an error while making the backup saying that profile had been written to. I tried it 3 times before figuring out that I can't do it using sudo, I have to actually logout and login as root. Then it will work. Using sudo only works if your filesystem is very small from what I can tell. Then when I did the restore, everything went smoothly. I installed Ubuntu on the new drive, then unpacked to the new drive. Restarted and the Ubuntu screen loads. That's it, it loads and stays there and doesn't change.

[vyoufinder]

It took me 2.5 days to figure it out but I now have a backup. None of the tools mentioned in this post worked for me. I tried them all I think. I also tried all the methods described here but most of them have missing steps. I kept backing up then tried to boot from the new drive and it would freeze after Grub, as soon as it shows the Ubuntu logo. It would just hang there. Finally I hit a carriage return and the damn thing booted. So.. I could've been done 2 days ago if I had known that part. HAVE TO HIT ENTER TO BOOT (now I need to figure out how to get rid of the enter button needing to be pressed!)


*EDIT* - nope. I just realized I had the original hard drive connected.. I'm still trying to make a freaking backup!

[nami]

I tried this and it didn't work. I have a lovely working system with twinview and nvidia drivers and everything. So I backed it up, and just as a test I removed the nvidia drivers and tried restoring the system to get the nvidia drivers back. It wouldn't let me into gnome after the restore...