Advanced SUSE Linux Enterprise Server Administration (Course 3038)

Advanced SUSE Linux
Enterprise Server
Administration (Course 3038)
Chapter 5
Manage Backup and Recovery
Objectives
Develop a Backup Strategy
Create Backup Files with tar
Copy Data with the dd Command
Advanced SUSE Linux Enterprise Server Administration (Course 3038)
Objectives (continued)
Mirror Directories with the rsync Command

Automate Data Backups with the cron Service
Troubleshoot the Boot Process of a SLES 9 System
Configure and Install the GRUB Boot Loader
Develop a Backup Strategy

Objectives
Choose a Backup Method
Choose the Right Backup Media
Choose a Backup Method

Full backup
Best possible method of data backup
All system data is copied to a backup media once a
day
To restore data
Most current backup media is copied back to the
systems hard disk
Disadvantage
Time frame available to perform backups (Backup
window)
Perform backups when the system is not used

Choose a Backup Method (continued)

Perform an incremental backup
Perform a full backup once a week
Then you perform a backup every day
That copies only files that have changed since the
backup the day before
Advantage
Backup window can be much smaller
Disadvantage
Recovery time is longer

Perform a differential backup
Perform a full backup once a week
Then you perform backups every day
To record files that have changed since the last full
backup
Advantage
To restore data from a differential backup, you need just
two backup media
Disadvantage
Amount of data to be backed up grows every day
Choose the Right Backup Media

Tape drives are used most often
They still have the best price-to-capacity ratio
Normally these are SCSI drives
Other media for data backup include

Writable CDs or DVDs, removable hard drives, and
magnetic-optical (MO) drives
Storage Area Networks (SANs) are also used

SAN often uses magnetic tapes to store the data
Store backup media separately from backed up

systems
Store sensitive backup media offsite
Create Backup Files with tar

Objectives
Create tar Archives

Unpack tar Archives
Exclude Files from Backup
Perform Incremental and Differential Backup
Use tar Command-Line Options
10
Create tar Archives

tar format
Container format for files and directory structures
Extension of the archive files end in .tar
Normally data in the archive files is not compressed

You can use additional compression commands
Directories are typically backed up with

tar -cvf /backup/etc.tar /etc
tar -cvf /dev/st0 /home
View the contents of an archive by entering

tar -tvf /backup/etc.tar
11
Unpack tar Archives

Unpack files from an archive
tar -xvf /dev/st0
Extract just one file

tar -xvf /test1/backup.tar -C /home/user1/.bashrc
12
Exclude Files from Backup

List of these files must be written in an exclude file
Line by line
List is then passed to tar with the option -X

tar -cvf /dev/st0 /home -X exclude.files
13
Perform Incremental and Differential

Backups
Use a snapshot for incremental backups
Make a full backup with a tar command
tar -cz -g /backup/snapshot_file -f /backup/backup_full.tar.gz /home
Perform an incremental backup

tar -cz -g /backup/snapshot_file -f /backup/backup_mon.tar.gz /home
Use the find command to search for files to back up

for differential backup
Make a full backup
tar -czf /backup/backup_full.tar.gz /home
Back up all files that are newer than the full backup
find /home -type f -newer /backup/backup_full.tar.gz -print0 | tar -cvf
-null /backup/backup_mon.tar.gz -TAdvanced SUSE Linux Enterprise Server Administration (Course 3038)
14
Use tar Command-Line Options
15
Copy Data with the dd Command

Command dd
Converts and copies files byte-wise
Can copy all kinds of data
Including entire hard disk partitions
Copy a file
dd if=/etc/protocols of=protocols.org
Copy a complete partition

dd if=/dev/sda1 of=boot.partition
Create a backup copy of the MBR

dd if=/dev/sda of=/tmp/mbr_copy bs=512 count=1
16
Mirror Directories with the rsync

Command
Objectives
Perform Local Copying with rsync
Perform Remote Copying with rsync
17

Mirror all home directories
rsync -a /home /shadow
Mirror the content of a directory and not the directory

itself
rsync -a /home/. /shadow
Exclude files from backup

rsync -a --exclude-from=/home/exclude /home/.
/shadow/home
18

(continued)
19
Perform Remote Copying with rsync

With rsync and SSH
Log in to other systems
Perform data synchronization remotely over the
network
Copy home directory of the user tux to a backup

server
rsync -ave ssh root@DA1:/home/tux /backup/home/
Backup of the home directory is copied back to the

DA1 system
rsync -ave ssh /backup/home/tux root@DA1:/home/
20
Automate Data Backups with the cron

Service
Automate backups in Linux with the cron service
System jobs are controlled with the file /etc/crontab
And the files in the directory /etc/cron.d
System jobs are defined using scripts in directories

/etc/cron.(hourly, daily, weekly, and monthly)
Specify which users can create cron jobs with

/var/spool/cron/allow and /var/spool/cron/deny
Jobs of individual users

Stored in files in the directory /var/spool/cron/tabs
Processed with the command crontab
21
Troubleshoot the Boot Process of a

SLES 9 System
Objectives
System Boot Process Issues
How to Boot a Corrupted System Directly into a Shell
How to Boot a Corrupted System with the Installation
Media
How to Start and Use the SLES9 Rescue System
22
System Boot Process Issues

Most common problems:
The system cannot boot due to a misconfigured boot
loader
The system cannot boot because of file system corruption
An init script has malfunctioned and is blocking the boot
process
The system does not start correctly because of hardware
changes
Access the file system of the corrupted system

To detect and fix the problem
23
How to Boot a Corrupted System

Directly into a Shell
Boot screen of the GRUB boot loader
Lets you pass parameters that modify the Linux
kernel
Before the kernel is actually loaded
Use the Boot Options field

At the bottom of the GRUB boot screen
Boot parameter init=new_init_program

Changes the first program loaded by the kernel
To boot to a shell use init=/bin/bash
24
How to Boot a Corrupted System with

the Installation Media
Steps
Insert the SLES 9 DVD and reboot the system
Select Installation; then press Enter
When YaST displays the language selection dialog
box, select Accept
Select Boot installed system; then select OK
Select the root partition of the system you would like
to boot; then select Boot
25
How to Start and Use the SLES 9

Rescue System
Steps
Insert the SLES 9 DVD and reboot the system
From the boot menu, select Rescue System; then press
Enter
From the language selection dialog box, select your
language; then press Enter
At the prompt Rescue login, enter root
Press the Enter key
You are now logged into the Rescue System as root
Mount the corresponding partition

mount -t reiserfs /dev/hda6 /mnt
26
Configure and Install the GRUB Boot

Loader
Objectives
The Basic Functionality of a Boot Loader
The Basics of GRUB
How to Configure the GRUB Boot Loader
27
The Basic Functionality of a Boot

Loader
Basic tasks of a boot loader:
Boot various operating systems
Pass boot parameters to the Linux kernel
Stages
Stage 1
Program code for stage 1 is installed in the master boot
record (MBR) of the hard disk
Stage 2
Usually contains the actual boot loader
Files of boot loader are located in the directory /boot
28
The Basics of GRUB

GRUB is the standard boot loader of SLES 9
Features
Stage 2 File System Drivers
Includes file system drivers for
ReiserFS, ext2, ext3, Minix, JFS, XFS, FAT, and
FFS (BSD)
GRUB Shell
Enables interactive control of the boot manager
29
How to Configure the GRUB Boot

Loader
Edit the file /boot/grub/menu.lst
Structure of the file
General options are listed
Options for the various operating systems
That can be booted with the boot manager
Example
30

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