disk backup

8/6/2019 Disk Backup

1/42

PBX IN A FLASH DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION

Whole Disk Backup

Backing up your PBX in a Flash 1.7.5.5installation

PIAF Development Corporation

March 25, 2011

A manual to install, configure, and use a whole disk backup program on PBX in a Flash 1.7.5.5

PIAF De

CorpDigitally signed by PIAF Dev

DN: cn=PIAF Dev Corp, o=P

Flash Development Corpora

ou=Executive,

email=support@piafdevcorc=US

Date: 2011.03.25 11:21:00 -0


2/42

Whole Disk Backup March 2011

Copyright 2007 2011 PBX in a Flash Development Corporation All Rights Reserved Page 2

Welcome! This document will describe the configuration and installation of the whole disk backup

package onto PBX in a Flash 1.7.5.5 We have tested this script on Lab, Production, Real, and Virtual

machines; using both VMware and Proxmox with great success. This is version 1.7.5.5 of the program

released March 25, 2011

WARNINGS

This script was tested and vetted on machines running INTEL and AMD processors with lots of RAM

and NO SATA or RAID controllers present. All of the machines used in the development of this

program use SATA or Virtual drives. LVM drives were not used for testing and are not recommend for

use with this program. If you want to run this on a machine that uses either RAID or LVM there is No

direct support available except from the authors of Mondo.

As with any new piece of software you need to ensure it actually works in your own computer

environment. If you fail to test this software on your production machine and you rely on it to do

mission critical backups YOUR BACKUP OR RESTORE WILL FAIL. What does this mean? It means that

without testing on your own hardware the Whole Disk Backup program may not work at all.

This work is copyright 2007 2011 by the PBX in a Flash Development Corporation. This work may

not be altered or modified without express written permission of the author. You may copy this

manual and use it freely; however this notice must be included with the document. This manual is

NOT released under the GNU General Public License. Whole Disk Backup is designed and licensed

to only run under PBX in a Flash. Use of this program under any other PBX system is a violation of

our license.

Please contact us in the PBX in a Flash forum for further information.


3/42



The need to have mission critical backups for PBX in a Flash 1.7.5.5 is a requirement that has been

lacking in most installations of PBX systems. When a PBX installation fails due to hardware problems

there has to be a way to quickly and accurately restore the system. The hard disk backup should be able

to take an entire hard drive and all partitions and store it on a remote site. The stored hard

drive/partition information should be able to be easily restored to a bare metal environment.

OVERVIEW

In order to meet this need Mondoarchive was chosen as the backup engine. It provides complete hard

drive/partition backups to multiple media types. Mondoarchive also supports most file systems and has

a facility to boot the restore software from different media and restore it. The best part is Mondo is

free! More information can be found at http://www.mondorescue.org. Below is an excerpt from the

Mondo website.

Mondo is reliable. It backs up your GNU/Linux server or workstation to tape, CD-R, CD-

RW, DVD-R[W], DVD+R[W], NFS or hard disk partition. In the event of catastrophic data

loss, you will be able to restore all of your data [or as much as you want], from bare metal if

necessary. Mondo is in use by Lockheed-Martin, Nortel Networks, Siemens, HP, IBM,

NASA's JPL, the US Dept of Agriculture, dozens of smaller companies, and tens of

thousands of users.

Mondo is comprehensive. Mondo supports LVM 1/2, RAID, ext2, ext3, JFS, XFS,

ReiserFS, VFAT, UFS, and can support additional filesystems easily: just e-mail themailing

listwith your request. It supports software raid as well as most hardware raid controllers. It

supports adjustments in disk geometry, including migration from non-RAID to RAID.Mondo runs on all major Linux distributions (RedHat, RHEL, SuSE, SLES, Mandriva,

Debian, Gentoo) and is getting better all the time. You may even use it to backup non-Linux

partitions, such as NTFS.
http://www.mondorescue.org/http://www.mondorescue.org/http://www.mondorescue.org/http://www.mondorescue.org/support.shtmlhttp://www.mondorescue.org/support.shtmlhttp://www.mondorescue.org/support.shtmlhttp://www.mondorescue.org/support.shtmlhttp://www.mondorescue.org/support.shtmlhttp://www.mondorescue.org/support.shtmlhttp://www.mondorescue.org/


4/42



Using a program based cron job Mondoarchive is called to backup all of the hard drives and partitions on

your PBX in a Flash 1.7.5.5 system. Mondoarchive will generate a number of ISO based files that

represent all of the information on your hard drives and partitions. An ISO based file is one that is

designed to be written to a cdrom or dvd media. The writing of these ISO files can be accomplished by

any CD/DVD writing software. Nero Burning is one example that primarily runs under windows.

METHODOLOGY

The ISO files are sequentially numbered 1 n and there is a separate ISO created called

emergencyboot.iso. The emergencyboot.iso file is an emergency boot disk which contains a copy of the

boot information and the restore software. This disk can be used if booting off of the first disk of your

mondorescue-n.iso fails. All of these files are created on the local hard drive of your PBX in a Flash

1.7.5.5 system. Once the files have been created you must store them offsite in case of a catastrophic

failure.

This is where the disk-backup.cron program comes into play. The program, under control of cron, and is

invoked once a week. Once disk-backup.cron has completed the creation of the ISO files it will move the

files to offsite storage. The methods by which the files can be moved are ftp, direct copy to an attached

USB hard or flash drive, via SMB connection, or to a network attached PogoPlug. Mondoarchive also

directly supports copying the ISO files directly to an attached NFS share point. I have not implemented

NFS as there seems to be little demand for it. If the reader wants this feature I would recommend they

read the Mondo documentation.

There are several requirements to run the disk backup script and they are outlined below. It isrecommended you have met all of the requirements prior to performing the installation and

configuration.

REQUIREMENTS

o A working PBX in a Flash 1.7.5.5 installation. Note this software is designed to work with PBX in aFlash 1.7.5.5 ONLY

o A command line editor you are comfortable with on your PBX in a Flash. We use joe as ourcommand line editor.

o Various pieces of information that you will require in order to make the file transfer methodsyou have selected work. Below is a table of all of the required information. Simply fill theinformation for the method of storage you have selected. By default ftp is enabled and

USB/SMB is disabled.


5/42



A least one of the following

o An ftp account on a remote system that you can log into and upload fileso A USB stick of sufficient size locally attached to your PBX in a Flash. It is recommended you

follow the directions in Appendix one to delete the existing file system and redo it with the Linux

version of fdisk and mkfs.

o Access to a shared drive on a Windows/Samba server with sufficient privileges to read and writefiles

o Access to a Pogo Plug share

These settings are contained in /etc/pbx/disk-backup.conf and /etc/pbx/script-email.conf. When the

program is installed the default setting is to disable the production of ISO backups until the

/etc/pbx/disk-backup.conf file is fully configured.

Information Tables to be filled out prior to Installation

Program Options

VARIABLE

NAMEDefault Value

User provided

valueDescription

CONFIGURED 0

MASTER SWITCH This controls if the program is

processed.

0 = DISABLED You need to change this to 1 after you

have configured the /etc/pbx/disk-backup.conf file


6/42



Configuration Options

VARIABLENAME

Default Value User providedvalue

Description

REMLOGS 1

This switch tells the program to remove the log files

from the previous weeks run

0 = Do not remove previous log files

1= Do remove previous log files

SENDLOG 1

This switch instructs the program to email the log file

to a email address specified in /etc/pbx/email-

script.conf There is another option later in the

configuration file to gzip the log file prior to sending

it.

0 = Do not email log

1 = Email log

DELBACKUPS 1

This option causes the ISO files that have been

created to be deleted AFTER they have been copied

to offsite storage.

0 = Do not delete local copy of ISO file

1 = Delete local copy of file

DIRECTORY /backup Do not change! This is where the ISO files are created.


7/42



Mondorescue Configuration

VARIABLENAME

Default Value User providedvalue

Description

EXCLUDEDIR /backup

This entry tells Mondorescue which directories to

exclude during backup. The /backup directory is

created by the whole disk backup installation

program and is where the local copy of ISO files

resides if they are not deleted after processing. You

may add other directories by simply adding a space

and a properly formatted unix path

MFILESIZE 4300m

This tells Mondorescue how big an ISO to create. It is

recommended that this size be slightly smaller than

CD or DVD size. CD size should be 630m and single

layer DVD should be 4300m. The m after the

number = megabytes and is NOT optional!


8/42



Ftp Information

VARIABLE NAME Default ValueUser

provided

value

Description

CPFTP 0

Once the ISOs have been created by

Mondorescue copy them to an ftp store

0 = Do not copy to ftp share

1 = Copy to ftp share

USERNAME ftpuserThis is the username that you use to log onto

the remote ftp server

PASSWORD ftppasswordThis is the password used to log onto the

remote ftp server

REMOTEDIRECTORY /This is the remote ftp directory you wish the

backup files to be placed minimum is /

SERVER ftp.server.ipThis is the IP address or Fully Qualified Domain

Name of the ftp server


9/42



Usb drive info

VARIABLE NAME Default Value User providedvalue

Description

CPFLASH 0


Mondorescue copy them to an external

USB Hard/Flash drive

0 = Do not copy to USB hard/flash drive

1 = Copy to USB hard/flash drive

USBMOUNTPOINT= /mnt/usbmondoWhere the flashdrive is mounted to

default is /mnt/usbmondo

It is

recommended

you DO NOT

change this

USBDEVICENAME= /dev/sda1

This is the device name of your USB

stick and may change depending on

what you find using dmesg. Default is

/dev/sda1 *Usually works in most

cases

Please see Appendix one for the complete procedure to configure your USB drive to work before fillingout the table above.


10/42



Smb Share Information

VARIABLE NAME Default Value User providedvalue

Description

CPSMB 0


Mondorescue copy them to a SMB share

on the network

0 = Do not copy to network share

1 = Copy to network share

SMBMACHINE= 192.168.1.5

This is the ip Address of the machine

that is sharing a folder. This machine can

be windows based or any operating

system that can run SAMBA server

SMBSHARE= sharename

This is the share name on the remote

window/Samba machine. NOTE you

must have sufficient privileges on the

remote machine to read/write/modify

LOCALMOUNT= /mnt/smbmondo

This is the local folder that the remote

SMB share is mounted to. NOTE dont

change thus unless you understand how.

It is

recommendedyou DO NOT

CHANGE THIS!

SMBUSER= userThis is your username on the remote

Windows/Samba machine

SMBPASS= passThis is your password on the remote

Windows/Samba machine.


11/42



VARIABLE NAME

Pogo Plug Information

Default ValueUser provided

valueDescription

CPPOGO 0


Mondorescue copy them to a

network based Pogo Plug

0 = Do not copy to the Pogo Plug

1 = Copy to the Pogo Plug

PMOUNT "/mnt/pogoplug"

This is the local mount for Pogo Plug

It is recommended you do NOT

change this

PNAME "[email protected]"

This is the username to log into a

Pogo Plug. Note it should be in the

form of an email address

PPASS "password"

This is password used in conjunction

with username to log into a Pogo

Plug

POGOROOT "16gbflash"

This is the name of the hard drive on

the Pogo Plug you wish to use. NOTE

it is recommended you change the

name of the shared hard drive to

something without spaces in it.

Spaces in the hard drive name can

lead to unexpected results. This can

be changed on the web based

configuration # my.pogoplug.com

POGOPATH "test 15"

This is the destination directory on

the Pogo Plug. If it does not exist itwill be created. We tested it with a

space in the name however it is

recommended you do NOT use

spaces or any special charaters in

the directory name


12/42



Rsync information

VARIABLE NAME Default ValueUser provided

valueDescription

USYNC 0

This will allow the ISO files to be copied

to the destination via rsync. Generally

this takes less time to do the copy,

except for the first iteration. After the

first time only the deltas (changes) are

copied to the remote storage device.

If enabled it will be used on all enabled

methods except for ftp.

0 = Do not use rsync

1 = Use rsync

Gzip information

VARIABLE NAME Default ValueUser provided

valueDescription

GZIPPEE 0

With this option gzip will compress thelog file prior to emailing it to the

designated recipient. The log files can

become very large and be rejected by

mail servers. This is only effective if

sending of logs via email is enabled (as

above)


13/42


14/42



In order to install disk-backup.cron and its associated programs the user will have to follow some basic

commands in the PBX in a Flash 1.7.5.5 command line interface. (Hereinafter called the CLI) This

document contains screen captures and step by step instructions so the installation should not present

too many difficulties.

PROCEDURE

The general order of installation is as follows:

1. Decide which method(s) you will be using to transfer your backup files and to which remotemachines or attached devices. You may choose one or all of them. By default ftp is enabled but

you can also choose to use USB hard/flash drive, SMB, or Pogo Plug.

2. Fill out the information tables above prior to installing the software. If you are going to use aUSB memory stick I recommend it be at least 8gb in size. You will need to follow the steps in

Appendix 1 in order to get the required information to fill out the table above.

3. Install the Software4. Configure the /etc/pbx/disk-backup.conf file.5. Test the backup software by running the disk-backup.cron script by hand. This will take a very

long time. Start it running and go away for lunch!

Please log onto your PBX in a Flash 1.7.5.5 system as root and perform the following steps

INSTALLING THE SOFTWARE

STEP 1

Type help-pbx and then tap the ENTER key

As you scroll through it you will see on page 3 the new install-diskbackup program


15/42




16/42



STEP 2

Type install-diskbackup and then tap the ENTER key. You will see out standard license screen tap the Y

key to agree with the terms and continue

STEP 3

You will see a short message about checking for LVM. If you are running LVM you will see the following

warning

If you are not running LVM you will see the following


17/42



You might see the following screen if the mail configuration file is not present on the system

STEP 4

Next you will see the download screen

If the download is successful you will see the install proceed. If your internet is down you will see the

following


18/42



Then

If you see these screens you have problems with your internet connectivity. It is your problem to

diagnose this and not the developers of PBX in a Flash!

STEP 5

As the install progresses you will see the following screens:


19/42



Step 6

You will be given the option to view the installation log file


20/42



The screen will look similar to the following:

Other screens that may be displayed

If you see this screen it means you are trying to run this program on a non PBX in a Flash 1.7.5.5

installation or you are trying to run it on a pre PBX in a Flash 1.7.5.5 install. Unfortunately older installs

of PIAF are incompatible with the new version of the program. If you are running an older version of

PIAF please use the deprecated version as it still works. There are NO plans to back port this version so it

runs in versions prior to 1.7.5.5


21/42



We need to edit the /etc/pbx/disk-backup.conf file and add the appropriate information. We

recommend the use joe for this purpose. It is a powerful text editor and allows you to use WordStar

commands . All of the following screen captures are show inside of the joe editor environment.

Configuring the disk-backup.conf file

Log into your PBX in a Flash 1.7.5.5 system as root and in the CLI type cd /etc/pbx and tap the ENTER

key. Now type joe disk-backup.conf and then tap the ENTER key. You should see the screen below.

A few notes about the disk-backup.conf

The can be no blank lines! Comments always start with a # symbol All options MUST be enclosed by double quotes for example: 1 There are NO capital Os as options only Zeros 0

1. The first thing to edit is the master switch. This controls if the conf file is processed. It is shipped OFF


22/42



2. Next we edit the configuration options

We recommend you use the defaults

3. Mondoarchive configuration There are only 2 options at the moment: EXCLUDEDIR and MFILESIZE.EXCLUDEDIR is the command line portion that tells Mondoarchive which directories NOT to back up.

At a minimum /backup MUST BE INCLUDED. If you wish to add other directories simply add the full

path after the /backup with a space between each directory path.

MFILESIZE is the command line portion that tells Mondoarchive how big an ISO to make. We

recommend either 630m for CDrom or 4300m for DVDs. While this is smaller than the usually

capacity of each of the media types it is recommended that you use these defaults.


23/42



4. Altering the FTP information (If you are using ftp to store your backup files)Now referring to the table at the beginning of this document you need to edit the following fields

with your information IF YOU ARE USING THE FTP TRANSFER FEATURE! The ftp transfer is by default

TURNED ON. Please supply the USERNAME, PASSWORD, REMOTEDIRECTORY, and SERVER. The

DIRECTORY information SHOULD NOT BE CHANGED! Once you have entered the information Hold

down the CONTROL key and tap K then X (if you are using joe) to save the file. Now you need to

reopen the file to continue editing. Press the UP arrow on your keyboard once and Linux will supply

your last command. Now tap the ENTER key and you will be back into the disk-backup.conf file.


24/42



5. USB InformationFrom within the editor scroll down the page until you see the following:

You will need to enable using USB hard/flash drives by changing CPFLASH=1. We recommend you

leave USBFS and USBMOUNTPOINT set to the defaults. You may need to change the

USBDEVICENAME to what your local USB Hard/Flash drive is referred by the operating system. The

steps required to ascertain this are outline in appendix one of this guide.


25/42



6. SMB InformationFrom within the editor scroll down the page until you see the following:

You will need to enable using network attached SMB drives by changing CPSMB=1. You will need

to change SMBMACHINE, SMBSHARE, SMBUSER, SMBPASS. DO NOT CHANGE THE LOCALMOUNT!

NOTE SMBMACHINE MUST BE A IPADDRESS ONLY! Using a machine name will not work!


26/42



7. Pogo Plug informationOne new feature of this program is the ability to backup to an internet attached storage device

referred to as a Pogo Plug. Currently the PIAF Lab backs all of it test machines to a Pogo Plug device

which has a total of 8 TB of storage. The Pogo Plug is stored offsite to help assure business

continuity in case of a disaster. The initial development of using this device with PIAF is all thanks to

Ward NerdUno.

You will need to enable using network attached Pogo drives by changing CPPOGO=1. Do not

change the PMOUNT variable. Your PNAME should be your email address you use to log in to your

Pogo Plug. PPAS is your password for the Pogo Plug. POGOROOT is the name your Pogo Plug assigns

to the hard drives connected to the PP. This is usually the hardware name which can contain spaces.

We recommend you rename the Hard drive to something that does not have spaces in the name.

This can be accomplished by using the web interface to your Pogo Plug. Lastly the POGOPATH is the

name of the backup folder you wish to use under the POGOROOT. It can be anything but we

recommend you do not use spaces in the name. If this directory does not exist it will be created onthe Pogo Plug the first time the disk-backup.cron is ran.


27/42



8. Log compression facilityThis feature allows the log file to be compressed with gzip and sent as a file attachment in an email.

Normally the log file is piped to the body of the email but due to the size some email servers will

reject the message.

Set GZIPPEE to equal 1 to enable this feature.

Testing the disk-backup.cron file

A critical step is to test the disk-backup.cron file. This test will take a very long time. I recommend you

start it and go to lunch. In the CLI type cd /etc/cron.weekly and then tap the ENTER key. Now type

./disk-backup.cron and then tap the ENTER key. Now go away for a while. If everything was configured

properly the command should complete with no error messages on the screen. However your mileage

may vary. One or two error messages seems to be ok during normal operation. I recommend you look at

the log file /var/log/disk-backup.cron.log. Check on your ftp/usb/smb/Pogo sites to see if the files were

copied over. Generally there should be an emergencyboot.iso and a Mondorescue-1.iso file. Depending

on the size of files backed up there may be others in the Mondorescue series These are your actual

backups and may span multiple ISO files.


28/42



Restoring your PBX in a Flash 1.7.5.5

When I was writing the backup program I opted to use a CDROM sized ISO. This was done as I wanted to

the most common denominator that would run on the most systems. You are free to modify the size of

the Mondorescue produced ISO files as it does support DVD size with no problems. I would recommend

you read the Mondorescue documentation prior to altering the configuration file!

Scenario

You are running you backups weekly on a Sunday and your PBX in a Flash 1.7.5.5 dies on a Wednesday.

Solution

You have been storing the backup files on a remote ftp site. Log onto the ftp site and download the ISO

files to a windows machine. You notice there are a total of three ISOs. One is called emergencyboot.iso

and the others are labeled mondorescue-1.iso and mondorescue-2.iso. Burn all three disks to cdroms

and label them EmergencyBoot, Restore- 1, and Restore- 2.

Repair the hardware on your ailing PBX in a Flash 1.7.5.5 system. You just happen to have another

machine available with the exact same hardware (Mondorescue does support restoring to different

hardware geometry but that is beyond the scope of this document. )

Place the Restore-1 disc into the CD drive and boot the system. If the boot fails try using the Emergency

Boot disc. Eventually you will get to an instructional page. Type nuke and then tap the ENTER key.

Mondo will go through some checks and just follow the onscreen prompts until the restore is complete.

Reboot the system. You should be back at where you where when the last hard drive/partition backup

was performed.


29/42



Appendix One Configuring and installing your USB drive

You should repartition and reformat your USB drive using Linuxs fdisk and mkfs prior to using it with

PBX in a Flash 1.7.5.5. We now recommend that you reformat your USB flash drive to ext3 format

which seems to be more reliable under Linux.

Setting up your USB Flash Drive

Adding a flash drive can be easily within PBX in a Flash 1.7.5.5 Insert your flash drive into a USB port and

wait a few minutes. Then log in to the Command Line Interface on your PBX in a Flash using putty or a

similar program and do the following.

STEP 1 Where is my drive?

Type dmesg in the CLI and tap the Enter key. You may have to look thru the output until you find

something similar to below.

Notice that Centos calls USB flash drives SCSI. What you are looking for is the SCSI address that the OS

assigned to it. The 9th line from the top tells us that it is device sdd. This translates to the path /dev/sdd.

Please write this address down in the USB Table at the beginning of this document. Notice on the thirdto last line the snippet sdd: sdd1. This means that the usable partition is actually sdd1. Other names can

be sdb, sdc, etc


30/42



STEP 2 Partitioning and Formatting the USB Drive

In order to use the drive you need to repartition and format it. This will delete ALL existing

information on the drive!

At the CLI type: fdisk /dev/sdd (substitute your dive letter for sdd)

Then tap the enter key and then tap the m key and then the Enter key. You should see a display similar

to below.


31/42



Now we need to delete the existing partition. Tap the d key, and then tap the Enter key. This will

delete the partition.

Now create a new partition on the flash drive. Tap the n key and then the Enter key. It will now ask

you for the Command Action tap the p key and then tap the Enter key. It is now asking for a Partition

Number. Tap the 1 key and then tap the Enter key. Tap the Enter key twice more.

Ensure the partition type code is 83! Tap the t key and then enter 83 . You should see a screen similar to

the one below and it will indicate the drive is linux.

Now write the changes to the disk. Tap the w key and then tap the Enter key. Eventually you will see

the screen below.


32/42



Congratulations you have successfully repartitioned you USB disk.

Now we need to format the drive using the ext3 file system. At the CLI type the following

Mkfs t ext3 /dev/sdd1 (substitute your drive letter)

Now tap the ENTER key. You should see something similar to the screen below

You have successfully formatted you USB flash drive to use the ext3 file system.


33/42



STEP 3 How to use the drive?

The manual way to mount and unmount your usb drive is command line based. In order to mount the

drive type the following mount -t ext3 /dev/sdd1 /mnt/usbmondo and then tap the ENTER key.

Type cd /mnt/usbmondo and then tap the ENTER key. Type the command ls and then tap the ENTER

key. You have successfully mounted your USB flash drive.

In order to unmount the drive type cd /root and then tap the ENTER key, Now type

umount /mnt/usbmondo

And then tap the ENTER key. The USB drive is disconnected from the mount point and no longer

accessible.

For the disk-backup.cron program to work you need to ensure you unmount the USB flash drive. This

helps ensure that your backup files cannot be accidentally modified.


34/42



Appendix 2 Information

There are several different files that are created when disk-backup.cron runs. The log files are located in

the /var/log.

disk-backup.log this is the log created by disk-backup.cron. This log is also mailed toroot@localhost or other specified email account after each run.

Install-diskbackup.log This contains information about what was installed and when

ISO files created

Emergencyboot.iso This file is strictly a boot disk and is OPTIONAL. It is made available in caseyou have difficulty booting from the mondorescue-1.iso disk. You do not need to burn this diskroutinely.

Mondorescue-1.iso this is the first disk in the backup series and contains a bootable partition.Simply place the disk into the system to be restored and let it boot. If you have difficulties then

you can use the emergencyboot.iso listed above. You may only have mondorescue-1.iso if your

PIAF system is small. If the backup exceeds the capacity of a single media then more isos will be

created. These will be numbered mondorescue-N.iso with N = the volume number.


35/42



Appendix 3 Running Mondo Manually

Step 1

o Log into your PBX in a Flash 1.7.5.5 CLI as user rooto Type amportal stopo Type mondoarchive and then tap the ENTER key. You should see a screen similar to below.

If you see this screen then Mondoarchive and all of its associated programs were installed correctly.

Now you simply choose the media that you wish to backup to. For this demo I am using DVDs. Tap the

ENTER key to continue.


36/42



Step 2

You need to choose how much compression you wish to use. The more the compression the smaller the

files and this means less backup disks. The down side is the higher the compression the longer it takes to

complete the backup job. I recommend you try average to begin with! Tap the ENTER key to continue.

Step 3

Now you have to choose the size. I recommend you use what Mondoarchive suggests. Tap the ENTER

key to continue.


37/42



Step 4

Mondoarchive will now ask you to specify your DVD drives path. Generally it is safe to simply tap enter

if there is something displayed in the blue area as you can see below. If there is nothing specified in this

box Centos does not recognize your CD/DVD drive. This problem is beyond the scope of this document

to fix and it is recommended you look on the internet for help. We am unable to assist you with this

type of problem.


38/42



Step 5

Mondoarchive now asks what you want to backup. Leave this as default. Tap the ENTER key to continue.

Step 6

Mondoarchive asks you what you want to NOT backup. You can leave it blank. Tap the ENTER key to

continue.

If you are storing files on a local directory then you may include it.


39/42



Step 7

If this is a mission critical backup I would suggest you choose yes to the next screen. If you have multiple

disks you may be asked to insert them back in one after another. Tap the ENTER key to continue.

Step 8

Are you confident your kernel is sane? What a question! In fact mindi does not consider the kernel sane

as the grub.conf uses the LABEL= statement. However it is safe to choose yes here. Note if you choose

No the backup will fail as a mindi image is not installed. Tap the ENTER key to continue


40/42



Step 9

Last chance to abort the installation! Please ensure you have inserted a blank CDROM/DVD into the

burner. (The media size depends on your earlier choice) Tap the ENTER key to continue.

Step 10

Backup progresses and you will see several screens below. That is about it; mondo will prompt you for

extra disks if it needs them. I recommend you label each disk as it comes out of the burner with its

number and date.


41/42




42/42


Note the image above was taken from a vmware machine that for some reason did not support the built

in DVD burner!

Restoring

In order to restore things simply insert the first DVD into your machine and boot it. You will see

mountains of warnings etc. Please ignore them as they are really meaningless. Eventually you will get to

the restore screen and you simply type nuke and then tap the ENTER key.

disk backup

Documents