Linux Backup for 20+ servers
Hey y'all...I mostly frequent the Cisco forums so I hope you don't mind me posting in here but I need a little Linux advice.
We have multiple Fedora 13 and 14 boxes out in the field doing mostly network functions like DHCP, Network Monitoring, etc. I am backing all of the day-to-day data I care about to a central FTP server, but i'm trying to figure out a low bandwidth solution for disaster recovery. Imaging isn't really an option because we don't have the time to set it up locally or the bandwidth to centralize it across the WAN.
I was thinking about a barebones set of config files that cover ip addressing, hostname, etc so that if I have to build a replacement box, I have a head start and I'm not doing it from scratch.
Is there an open source backup package out there that does something like this?
We have multiple Fedora 13 and 14 boxes out in the field doing mostly network functions like DHCP, Network Monitoring, etc. I am backing all of the day-to-day data I care about to a central FTP server, but i'm trying to figure out a low bandwidth solution for disaster recovery. Imaging isn't really an option because we don't have the time to set it up locally or the bandwidth to centralize it across the WAN.
I was thinking about a barebones set of config files that cover ip addressing, hostname, etc so that if I have to build a replacement box, I have a head start and I'm not doing it from scratch.
Is there an open source backup package out there that does something like this?
Cisco was my first networking love, but my "other" router is a Mikrotik...
Comments
rsync is your friend
Seriously, I use a 5 line script to backup my linux servers and run it as a cron. I have all files that were changed since the last backup saved to a dated directory, and I keep the last seven days of changes. So the big backup is the 'live' one, and if it's weds, and a config file changed on monday, and I need to see what was there originally, I can. Getting a server back up and running is simply a matter of pxebooting the remote box to a recovery image, prepping the disk, and rsyncing the file structure back over to it, and then running either grub or lilo to get the boot sector righteous and then bringing the box back up.
During a disaster recovery scenario, I think you should keep it as simple as possible. The LAST thing I want to do when I need to get a mission critical box back up is have to call a vendor's support line for a commerical product, or go google for an issue I'm having with an opensource package.
Please note - do not rely on this method for database backups. Rsyncing raw mysql database files and then restoring them is a good way to lose data and crash your tables. Database backups are a whole other ball of wax and should have seperate backup solution implemented.
SE Notebook
I installed bacula a while back. Never got it fully functional because I didn't have a tape device, bit it does have a gui frontend:
Bacula, the Open Source, Enterprise ready, Network Backup Tool for Linux, Unix, and Windows