Backup for HD crash

D

dxoxb

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I am totally new to running a server and have just boldly setup a server for DA :)

Can anyone share how I can do a backup in case there is a situation that the HD crash?

Is there such a backup that I can simply copy everything (incl DA, all installation and domain accounts) to another HD with OS preinstall and get everything running like before? :)
 
There is the backup application available in the admin level but it does requires manual restoring as well as having both the Operating System and DirectAdmin already installed.

If you looking for speed you could setup another harddrive using raid that makes an exact copy on the 2nd harddrive constantly (your motherboard will need to support this, or you will need a pci card, preferably hardware driven otherwise you will have to mess with drivers for it).

If your 1st Hard drive fails, you can simply unplug it, set your 2nd as master and reboot.
 
With linux and software RAID 1, you don't have to do anything; the system will continue to run with a bad drive, or a bad partition.

You do have to rebuild RAID manuallly after you replace the drive.

Jeff
 
what are the steps to be taken to replace a faulty drive on a softraid1? and how to rebuild the raid again
 
sander815 said:
what are the steps to be taken to replace a faulty drive on a softraid1? and how to rebuild the raid again
Click to expand...
Great question, will soon face the same problem here, need to take our primairy server down to replace the /dev/hdb disk (or 2nd on the raid 1 software array). But I must admit, I've done some simulations ages ago, but I can't seem to find the documents I made about it back than.

Also a problem I'm facing is this:
I want to make daily SQL/mail backups, the rest may be a once every 2 or 3 day's backup, but you can only configure 1 cron in the sysbk system.
I've already taken sysbk apart to avoid an SQL crash caused by it.
Last night was the first time the SQL backup ran without having to be manually restarted by me, looking forward to the extra sleep :).

My last question, DA backups both databases and the raw data files, which does it use to restore ?
I would really prefer it to use the dumped databases (individual .sql) files, due to the fact I am unsure if the raw data files are backupped without severe corruption, when sysbk shuts down MySQLd on the specific server, it doesn't come back. I have to issue a killall mysqld && service mysqld start command before it works again, so I took the shutting down part out...

edit:
Never only use a raid 1 array as backup, Murphy's law will get to it...
And it isn't safe, what if for some reason a fire breaks out in your server, both drives may be lost. (ok, my solution of storing it on the server that's directly hanging above the master server is not the best solution...)
 
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i would greatly appreciate it if someone could oint out a howto rebuild a softraid 1 system in case one of the hd's fails
 
jlasman said:
There's a good presentation of the Software RAID How-To here.

Jeff
Click to expand...
Well, that's how you set it up, I can do that with my eyes closed and 1 hand behind my back, but there was also supposed to be a ?TLDP? howto on how to 'repair' the array if 1 disk has failed (in case of raid 1).
 
I don't have time to write a How-To now, but...

1) you create a new drive with all the right partitions.

2) you use raidhotadd.

Did you stop after that URL, or did you keep pressing "next" for more information?

Jeff
 
jlasman said:
I don't have time to write a How-To now, but...

1) you create a new drive with all the right partitions.

2) you use raidhotadd.

Did you stop after that URL, or did you keep pressing "next" for more information?

Jeff
Click to expand...

I have to admit that, due to lack of time, I just checked out that page and had to click it away again.
I'm a bit short on time the last few weeks, (as well as on patience, but that has got something to do with a few company's and problems with moving/transferring domains)...
 
I know what you mean; I've been totally without spare time for weeks.

I can't even take the time to find (in my files) the printed out website I use.

Next time I do it I'll write a HowTo.

Jeff
 
The current backup feature in DA. does is backup DA installation?

Ok it is just account/domain data? What about other installation such as mailscanner?
 
sysbak backs up user accounts and their information as well as configuration files if specified, but it does not however backup entire installations or builds of programs.

As to whether it is capable of this, that is beyond the scope of my knowledge.
 
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Sysbk isn't capable of backing up an entire system.

If you need to back up your entire system you'll need to find another solution.

Jeff
 
Yes, systemimager makes an entire image of a linux install on another server. See my earlier post.
 
If you use RAID hardware remember that true hardware RAID doesn't require any special drivers, as it presents the RAID array to the kernel as one drive.

If your hardware RAID solution requires drivers then you should always take this two issues into consideration:

1) It's not true hardware RAID; see the first sentence above. It's software RAID wrapped up in a hardware package. Promise RAID comes under this caveat, but there are others as well.

2) It may cause you problems if you have to upgrade your BIOS, as the new driver may not be available on the schedule you'd like, or possibly not at all.

Jeff
 
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