Backup Strategy, how to do it properly Options

[Tron]

Hello all,

having pdaxii13 up and running well, I'd love to keep it that way. However, one has to expect the worst. What would be the best strategy to get it back up and running?

Say we have a akita full install, i.e. "/" on flash and "/usr" on hda1. I was thinking about booting into the maintenance menu and make a NAND backup and tar-gzip "/usr" as hdimage-custom.tgz and use that as hdimage after the NAND-restore. Would that work and how do you do it?

[jpmatrix]

Hello all,

having pdaxii13 up and running well, I'd love to keep it that way. However, one has to expect the worst. What would be the best strategy to get it back up and running?

Say we have a akita full install, i.e. "/" on flash and "/usr" on hda1. I was thinking about booting into the maintenance menu and make a NAND backup and tar-gzip "/usr" as hdimage-custom.tgz and use that as hdimage after the NAND-restore. Would that work and how do you do it?

there's a script called zbackup which does exactly what it is supposed to do
at least it works for the c3000, i don't know for the 3200

[speculatrix]

if your Z is connected to your home network for any length of time during the day, then you could "rsync" it across to your PC, using "ignore-existing" to only copy changes.

then when the rsync has finished, trigger a tar->gzip process on the PC so that it creates a snapshot for backup or archive purposes.

the good thing about this is that rsync runs over ssh so you don't have to be on a private/protected LAN to work. also rsync allows compression too.

[Meanie]

Hello all,

having pdaxii13 up and running well, I'd love to keep it that way. However, one has to expect the worst. What would be the best strategy to get it back up and running?

Say we have a akita full install, i.e. "/" on flash and "/usr" on hda1. I was thinking about booting into the maintenance menu and make a NAND backup and tar-gzip "/usr" as hdimage-custom.tgz and use that as hdimage after the NAND-restore. Would that work and how do you do it?

there's a script called zbackup which does exactly what it is supposed to do
at least it works for the c3000, i don't know for the 3200

zbackup works just like that for the Spitz based setups. However, on Akita based setups, it will not work due to it using the NAND and there currently is no real solution for it yet.

You can do a NAND backup of the flash and tar-gzip /usr. That would work. In case you need to restore, restore your NAND and extract the tgz file back to /usr

[kkazakov13]

Because I switch now more often between r179 (for testing) and beta3 (for stability) and because i like clean systems, I've made 2 scripts that helps me backup exactly what I need, exactly how I need it, and one script that reinstalls packages and restores the backed files. So in my case I have a 20 minutes script run after flashing with beta3, then I have the perfect setup

It's all in the customizations!

[Meanie]

Because I switch now more often between r179 (for testing) and beta3 (for stability) and because i like clean systems, I've made 2 scripts that helps me backup exactly what I need, exactly how I need it, and one script that reinstalls packages and restores the backed files. So in my case I have a 20 minutes script run after flashing with beta3, then I have the perfect setup

It's all in the customizations!

that's more like a kickstart/jumpstart process which is great for rebuilding machine setups but not exactly a backup.
i am still trying to find a nice user friendly GUI backup and restore application (preferably ncurses based) that is lightweight enough to be used on the Zaurus...

[Tron]

You can do a NAND backup of the flash and tar-gzip /usr.  That would work. In case you need to restore, restore your NAND and extract the tgz file back to /usr

Yes, I thought so, that's what I'm doing now. I do have a C3100 (Borzoi) so I run the system from flash und use the microdrive for "/usr".
As you pointed out, just rsyncing everything to a backup location does not really help as I do not have any way of getting it back onto the flash (the boot sector is another matter, anyway).

Am I correct to assume that the "Install hdimage"-function in the installer (not sure how exactly it's called) looks for a hdimage-tgz and extracts that to the first partition of the microdrive? In that case that together with a NAND-backup would be sufficient.

[Meanie]

You can do a NAND backup of the flash and tar-gzip /usr.  That would work. In case you need to restore, restore your NAND and extract the tgz file back to /usr

Yes, I thought so, that's what I'm doing now. I do have a C3100 (Borzoi) so I run the system from flash und use the microdrive for "/usr".
As you pointed out, just rsyncing everything to a backup location does not really help as I do not have any way of getting it back onto the flash (the boot sector is another matter, anyway).

Am I correct to assume that the "Install hdimage"-function in the installer (not sure how exactly it's called) looks for a hdimage-tgz and extracts that to the first partition of the microdrive? In that case that together with a NAND-backup would be sufficient.

there are two formats for the hdimage, hdimage-full.tgz,hdimage-base.tgz and hdimage.tgz require the files in the tgz to be prefixed with /hdd1 directory, whereas hdimage-custom.tgz just needs / so you can name the file hdimage-custom.tgz and the 'Install hdimage' feature in the installer should be able to extract it for you.