Date: Wed, 02 Mar 2011 17:11:08 -0500 From: Lowell Gilbert <freebsd-questions-local@be-well.ilk.org> To: Ed Flecko <edflecko@gmail.com> Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Fastest way to get an entire FBSD system back online? Message-ID: <44hbbl9nr7.fsf@be-well.ilk.org> In-Reply-To: <AANLkTinMnV5qVYzeEPQN7i6u7AUZZ-ewEaudBp3LmTk-@mail.gmail.com> (Ed Flecko's message of "Wed, 2 Mar 2011 13:50:19 -0800") References: <AANLkTinMnV5qVYzeEPQN7i6u7AUZZ-ewEaudBp3LmTk-@mail.gmail.com>
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Ed Flecko <edflecko@gmail.com> writes: > I confess I'm more familiar with "Windows" and for years I have > "Ghosted" PCs as a very fast way to get an entire PC back online in > the event of a drive failure. I can easily get a PC back online within > the hour using "ghost" (or some drive imaging software). > > Is there something similar in the FBSD arena?...some form of "backing > up" a server so that if a drive fails, upon replacement of the > drive(s), the OS can be very quickly recovered from a backup (of some > sort), or from an image, etc.? > > What options are available??? Suggestions??? Lots of options. - The standard backup technique is dump(8)/restore(8). It takes more than an hour for me to get back up from a dead disk, but I think it would be much faster if I didn't encrypt my backups. [Also, size and speed of disks and backup media will matter, of course.] - There are "ghost" style programs that understand BSD filesystems. I don't really see any advantage to these. - mirroring techniques. This would mean that when a disk dies, you already have a copy of it ready to step in. Some forms of RAID will do this for you, there's a GEOM class that will mirror any filesystem on it, or you could run a separate program (e.g., rsync to copy changed files over on a schedule). Other than, possibly, the "ghost" options, you'll find more information on all of these concepts and terms in the FreeBSD Handbook.help
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