[TriLUG] Re: Linux Backup strategies

[Doug_Newcomb at fws.gov]

Tarus,

My preference is to use partimage.  I boot the system in question with the
systemrescuecd  live cd , http://www.sysresccd.org/ , mount the smb share I
want to save to ,  copy the boot record with dd ( dd if=/dev/hda
of=boot.img  bs=512 count=1, reverse the if and of to write back )   to the
mounted smb share, and then run partimage with the gzip option, saving to
the smb mounted partition.  You can split the saved image to multiple files
with a specified file size limit ( under 2GB if necessary) .    On my
100-base-T network, it takes about 15 minutes to upload a 5GB (uncompressed
size) to the server and about 11 minutes to download and write the image.
It's OS independent as well.  I used it here to install syspreped images of
WindowsXP ( yes, we have an enterprise license) on several computers here .

I'm on the daily digest, so mail me directly with questions.

Doug Newcomb
USFWS
Raleigh, NC