Date: Sat, 14 Apr 2001 18:37:14 -0400 (EDT) From: Joseph Mallett <jmallett@newgold.net> To: Sue Blake <sue@welearn.com.au> Cc: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Subject: Re: saving configs [was: MUA's seen in the lists] Message-ID: <Pine.BSO.4.21.0104141834070.22758-100000@aphex.newgold.net> In-Reply-To: <20010415083855.Y4964@welearn.com.au>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
I do. I have a job cronned to tar up /etc and /var daily, not only that
but it copies it to two seperate partitions (in case I accidentally rm a
directory) and it's small enough for a floppy, but I usually just scp all
the files (they're datestamped, so I don't just have _one_ file) to a
seperate server.
/joseph
--
Joseph Mallett Security Specialist
jmallett@newgold.net www.newgold.net
irc.newgold.net/#xMach xMach Core Team
jmallett@xMach.org www.xMach.org
On Sun, 15 Apr 2001, Sue Blake wrote:
> On Sat, Apr 14, 2001 at 04:42:23PM -0400, Joseph Mallett wrote:
> >
> > Imagine having to do this to back up configuration:
> > find / -name '*.conf' -exec cp {} /backup/ ';'
> > And then imagine restoring everything to its proper home.
> > And then imagine all the files you missed because application X decided it
> > didn't want to name its files with .conf, X11 comes to mind.
>
> That'd be pretty futile. I run a script from cron that archives all of
> the important config files, plus a few reports and a listing of the
> contents of those archives showing the original paths. This can run
> daily 12 hours from backup time, or occasionally for a static home machine.
>
> It is NOT a substitute for backing up, but a more quickly accessed copy
> of the files for a quick restore if one of them gets hosed. (Ever had a
> server down while someone farts around with a tape to restore a 2k
> file? Broke your fstab or password file at 5pm, or lost today's new
> virtual domains setups? Discovered that the assistants haven't been
> using RCS like they promised?) It's a wonderful resource if you ever
> want to build the whole machine from scratch, e.g. on new hardware with
> a very different version of FreeBSD plus a good dose of hindsight. You
> know that all the info you need is in there, except the actual data --
> no searching or head-scratching required.
>
> These archives fit onto one floppy disk (two for the slow 386 where I
> want the current built kernel as well). I use zip and put them on
> DOS-formatted floppies, so that individual files can be extracted,
> viewed, printed, copied to another floppy, from almost any old
> Macintosh, OS/2, VMS, Unix, DOS, or even MS-Widows machine. For a
> simple setup you can just copy the files and still fit them all on a
> floppy.
>
> They are easy to transport off site (a quick scp to somewhere secure,
> or mail two disks in a regular envelope) and are so easy to make you'll
> have enough not to worry about unreliability of the media. Store one
> diskette every month or two for a compact history of the machine's configs.
>
> I'm surprised that others don't do something similar.
>
> --
>
> Regards,
> -*Sue*-
>
>
>
> To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org
> with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
>
To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org
with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?Pine.BSO.4.21.0104141834070.22758-100000>