[99041] in RedHat Linux List
Re: Full backups (over network) of non-Linux machines?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Sam Bayne)
Wed Nov 11 19:58:25 1998
Date: Wed, 11 Nov 1998 16:57:10 -0800
To: redhat-list@redhat.com
From: Sam Bayne <sbayne@nsccux.sccd.ctc.edu>
In-Reply-To: <364A16FC.718CF0BD@iname.com>
Resent-From: redhat-list@redhat.com
Reply-To: redhat-list@redhat.com
At 06:00 PM 11/11/98 -0500, you wrote:
>George Lenzer wrote:
>
>> Does anyone know of a way to FULLY backup up Windows NT/95 clients over the
>> network using Linux? When I say full backup, I mean the entire disk
>> structure. That way I could set up a few "images" of my NT or 95 clients
>> and clone or reproduce existing machines. I've been able to clone NT
>> Workstations using 'dd' and an additional hard drive, but I would really
>> like to find a way to do it without opening the box.
>
>This is supposed to be possible using smbtar, but getting the NT permissions
>right is a problem.
And the partition tables, and the registry, NTFS attributes, and other
random open files.
There are two ways to deal with getting ALL the data from a modern MS-based
OS:
1. An In-OS program. It has to be fully aware of the various filesystems
and cheesy extensions possible, and able to build backups of the registry
by query rather than trying to dump the file. If we're talking NT, you'll
probably also want to have it be aware of how to access active MS-SQL,
Exchange, WINS, DHCP, etc. databases. (for your clone image instead of a
regular backup you can ignore this, just stop the relevant services.)
Ordinarily such things are commercial products, such as the clients for
Arcserve or Seagate. One nice feature of such things is that they usually
can backup to network devices (as the OS can see the network).
2. An Out-of-OS program. These can often be much simpler, as they only
need to understand the filesystems and cheesy extensions. With the OS (and
all services) not running, the registry et al. are just files. The
disadvantage is that connecting to the network can be problematical, as you
no longer have the OS supplying that layer for you. An example:
>
>The only foolproof method I know is to install a minimal Linux
>on the NT box, boot Linux and dd the NT partition to tape or
>a remote disk. Also record detailed partitioning information,
>so you can restore if their disk blows.
Or a linux boot disk that boots to an NFS server. (you configure basically
as a diskless boot)
Unless you're totally strapped for cash, check into Drive Image,
Imageblaster, and Ghost. These run from DOS, and even a diehard Linux
fanatic like me has to admit that DOS bootdisks are easier than linux ones
;). They also (some of them) support fancy features like not being drive
geometry dependant, compressing images, and broadcast/multicast image
uploads/downloads. They also will copy non-MS partitions, for example
linux:). Imageblaster and Ghost can even modify the registry post-download
to take care of issues like NT SIDs and Netbios computernames. We use
Imageblaster here. We looked at ghost, but it only wanted to do
multicasting from a win32 server. >ick<.
I also would look hard at using a Netware server(or emulator) and IPX
instead of IP, (It is much simpler to set up a dos boot disk for
IPX/netware connectivity than IP/smb.) Mars_nwe is acceptable at looking
like a Netware 3.x server to dos clients, and free. Caldera does a Netware
server, but it's licensed per concurrent connection.
>
>>
>>
>> Thanks,
>> George Lenzer
>>
--------------------------------------------------
Sam Bayne -NT,Novell,HP-UX,Linux Sysadmin
sbayne@nsccux.sccd.ctc.edu (206) 527-3762
North Seattle Community College/Computing Services
9600 College Way N/Seattle,WA 98133
--------------------------------------------------
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