Hi, I've been playing with CentOS quite a bit lately (and I must say it's growing on me!! :) and I was now able to convince my boss that we could get a box and gradually start migrating our hosting from win2k3 to centos. So anyway, I've got a new box at the colo ready up and running - P4 3Ghz w/HT 2Ghz RAM 2x70Gb HDD, running Centos4.4 fully up-to-date. Now my two questions are; (1.) In terms of backup, I'd like to have a cron sending out an nightly incremental backup of user files. I'd also like to have HDA to be copied backed up entirely (maybe weekly) onto HDB (were're not going to use 140GB anyway!) so that is hda crashes, I`d swap both of the hdds and boot from the backup. Now for that second step, I was reading that dd was quite CPU intensive? Would there be other alternatives? Advices on doing backups? (2.) I've got no physical access to the box, and the box has obviously no video or sound. Considering this, would it possible to remotely administer the box using VNC in a GUI environment? - I figured 2Ghz could probably handle me starting x sometimes...! So if possible.. How would I do it? I`m assuming there are no `yum install x`.... Anyway.. Thanks for any input you may have on the both topics! Cheers, Seb. _____________________________________________________________________ This message and any attachments are confidential and are solely intended for the use of the addressee(s). If you are not the intended recipient please contact the sender by reply email. Please also disregard the contents of this email and delete and destroy any copies immediately. CMPMedica Australia Pty Ltd does not accept liability for the views expressed in this email or for the consequences of any computer viruses that may be transmitted with this email. Also subject to copyright, no part of this message should be reproduced or transmitted without written consent.
Hi Sebastien> (1.) In terms of backup, I'd like to have a cron sending out an nightly > incremental backup of user files.* In regards to nightly incremental backups, we simply use the rsync utility to pull the backups from a server onto the backup host also running linux> I'd also like to have HDA to be copied > backed up entirely (maybe weekly) onto HDB (were're not going to use > 140GB anyway!) so that is hda crashes, I`d swap both of the hdds and > boot from the backup.I would highly advise simply paying the money for a RAID Controller card to handle all of this for you. You mentioned that you do not have physical access to the server, so the Raid card can easily handle hdd failures and send you an email letting you know that you need to replace the other drive.> Now for that second step, I was reading that dd > was quite CPU intensive? Would there be other alternatives? Advices on > doing backups? >As above, we use the 3ware 8000 series raid cards because of its great track record (we always have and always will use 3ware) and freebsd / linux support.> (2.) I've got no physical access to the box, and the box has obviously > no video or sound. Considering this, would it possible to remotely > administer the box using VNC in a GUI environment? - I figured 2Ghz > could probably handle me starting x sometimes...! So if possible.. How > would I do it? I`m assuming there are no `yum install x`.... >Never a good idea to run X when you dont need to. All Administration can be done via config files on the command-line and any system-config gui programs usually have a commandline replacement anyway. But if you really wanted X check out 'yum grouplist' and 'yum groupinstall "X Window System"'> Anyway.. Thanks for any input you may have on the both topics! > > Cheers, > > Seb. >
Sebastien Tremblay wrote:> (2.) I've got no physical access to the box, and the box has obviously > no video or sound. Considering this, would it possible to remotely > administer the box using VNC in a GUI environment? - I figured 2Ghz > could probably handle me starting x sometimes...! So if possible.. How > would I do it? I`m assuming there are no `yum install x`....Well to answer this point, there is yum's "group install" feature. You can see the available groups and their status with: # yum grouplist | less And to install X it would be something like: # yum groupinstall "GNOME Desktop Environment" done deal. d
> * In regards to nightly incremental backups, we simply use the > rsync utility to pull the backups from a server onto the backup > host also running linuxYou're actually not the first to mention rsync, I'll man rsync and see what I can get!> I would highly advise simply paying the money for a RAID > Controller card to handle all of this for you. You mentioned > that you do not have physical access to the server, so the > Raid card can easily handle hdd failures and send you an email > letting you know that you need to replace the other drive.That's actually a very good point. The only thing is that the machine doesn't generate any revenue and so it'll heavlily depend on the price of the RAID controler really... I know there is none at the moment which is why I was looking into dd and tar. I've read that dd physically read/write every blocks of the disk whereas tar handles `zero-files` differently... Thus my question!> Never a good idea to run X when you dont need to. All > Administration can be done via config files on the command-line > and any system-config gui programs usually have a commandline > replacement anyway. But if you really wanted X check out > 'yum grouplist' and 'yum groupinstall "X Window System"'Good point, and I'm fully aware that one of the reasons win2k3 requires so much ram is the bloody UI! But I figured that with 2 ghz... I might give it a try! My concern tho' is really about configuring X... I've installed Centos on a test server here, and the X config is based on the server video/audio cards + monitor... What happens there there are none!!? :P Thx for your time... You made me realise that even RAID1 could be usefull (don't know why, I was under the impression that with only two disks raid wasn't worth it...!? Cheers Brad! Seb. _____________________________________________________________________ This message and any attachments are confidential and are solely intended for the use of the addressee(s). If you are not the intended recipient please contact the sender by reply email. Please also disregard the contents of this email and delete and destroy any copies immediately. CMPMedica Australia Pty Ltd does not accept liability for the views expressed in this email or for the consequences of any computer viruses that may be transmitted with this email. Also subject to copyright, no part of this message should be reproduced or transmitted without written consent.
> Well to answer this point, there is yum's "group install" feature. > You can see the available groups and their status with: > # yum grouplist | less > And to install X it would be something like: > # yum groupinstall "GNOME Desktop Environment" > done deal. > dGee... Never of that one!! I sure will give that group install a look! Cheers! Seb. _____________________________________________________________________ This message and any attachments are confidential and are solely intended for the use of the addressee(s). If you are not the intended recipient please contact the sender by reply email. Please also disregard the contents of this email and delete and destroy any copies immediately. CMPMedica Australia Pty Ltd does not accept liability for the views expressed in this email or for the consequences of any computer viruses that may be transmitted with this email. Also subject to copyright, no part of this message should be reproduced or transmitted without written consent.
> but it's possible, and you can run a secure connexion from > elsewhere, either using a VPN (I use and recommend > openvpn), or tunnelling VNC through ssh.> Here's an example of what I do to configure routers & > printers remotely, using their web interfaces. I'm using > this coz I think the port numbers are more obvious:-)> In a terminal window (eg Konsole) > ssh -L8080:192.168.2.254:80 sysadmin.office.lan> Then I point Mozilla or something at > http://127.0.0.1:8080/> Moz connects to port 8080 locally, ssh forwards the > connexion to an (mine) admin computer at work & ssh there > forwards it to the gateway box. Rather than going through > my VPN, I could use the external name for my office as ssh > still connects through to my desktop.> vnc, smtp and many other TCP protocols can be forwarded.Hey John, that's a very interesting point you're raising. However how 'compatible' is openvpn with an M$ network? I mean is it a seemless integration or are there flaws? Having a quite Microsoft oriented network the idea sure would help in integrating new non-Ms servers to the network... Thanks for your input! Seb. _____________________________________________________________________ This message and any attachments are confidential and are solely intended for the use of the addressee(s). If you are not the intended recipient please contact the sender by reply email. Please also disregard the contents of this email and delete and destroy any copies immediately. CMPMedica Australia Pty Ltd does not accept liability for the views expressed in this email or for the consequences of any computer viruses that may be transmitted with this email. Also subject to copyright, no part of this message should be reproduced or transmitted without written consent.
Maybe someone can clear up the grub conf for me. Has anyone gotten this to work: two IDE/ATA drivers. Slave is a spare duplicate of the master. Goal is to be able to boot to Spare at any time and run it instead. What step am I missing? When I tried to duplicate a system I failed using this method due to the /boot configuration being specific to the disk layout in the box. That is, if I copied disk A to disk B and then wanted to boot to B I believe I would have to remove A and strap B as the master. Combined SCSI and ATA totally failed on GRUB knowing which disk is which. Ended up having to first install the target slave disk and then moved the disk. Copied everything except /boot. My impression is RAID is the only thing which would work. My goal was actually to create several systems based on the install of one master system. The other systems had random numbers of disks and such. The only way i got it to work was Ch1Master had to be the boot disk in all of them. I mucked around with /boot/grub/grub.conf and device.map to no avail. Thanks, TimJowers --- Sebastien Tremblay <sebastien.tremblay at au.cmpmedica.com> wrote:> Hi, > > I've been playing with CentOS quite a bit lately (and I must say it's > growing on me!! :) and I was now able to convince my boss that we could > get a box and gradually start migrating our hosting from win2k3 to > centos. > > So anyway, I've got a new box at the colo ready up and running - P4 3Ghz > w/HT 2Ghz RAM 2x70Gb HDD, running Centos4.4 fully up-to-date. Now my two > questions are; > > (1.) In terms of backup, I'd like to have a cron sending out an nightly > incremental backup of user files. I'd also like to have HDA to be copied > backed up entirely (maybe weekly) onto HDB (were're not going to use > 140GB anyway!) so that is hda crashes, I`d swap both of the hdds and > boot from the backup. Now for that second step, I was reading that dd > was quite CPU intensive? Would there be other alternatives? Advices on > doing backups? > > (2.) I've got no physical access to the box, and the box has obviously > no video or sound. Considering this, would it possible to remotely > administer the box using VNC in a GUI environment? - I figured 2Ghz > could probably handle me starting x sometimes...! So if possible.. How > would I do it? I`m assuming there are no `yum install x`.... > > Anyway.. Thanks for any input you may have on the both topics! > > Cheers, > > Seb. > > _____________________________________________________________________ > This message and any attachments are confidential and are solely intended for > the use of the addressee(s). If you are not the intended recipient please > contact the sender by reply email. Please also disregard the contents of this > email and delete and destroy any copies immediately. CMPMedica Australia Pty > Ltd does not accept liability for the views expressed in this email or for > the consequences of any computer viruses that may be transmitted with this > email. Also subject to copyright, no part of this message should be > reproduced or transmitted without written consent. > _______________________________________________ > CentOS mailing list > CentOS at centos.org > http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos >__________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com
Hey Tim, Found this during my evening reading! http://www.dur.ac.uk/a.d.stribblehill/mirrored_grub.html "The purpose of this document is to suggest a way of configuring grub on a system where the operating system is mirrored between two disks, so that if the first disk fails completely, the system will boot automatically from the second disk." Hope this helps! Seb. -----Original Message----- From: centos-bounces at centos.org [mailto:centos-bounces at centos.org] On Behalf Of TimJowers at Yahoo.Com Sent: Thursday, 14 September 2006 10:49 PM To: CentOS mailing list Subject: Re: [CentOS] backup server.. Maybe someone can clear up the grub conf for me. Has anyone gotten this to work: two IDE/ATA drivers. Slave is a spare duplicate of the master. Goal is to be able to boot to Spare at any time and run it instead. What step am I missing? When I tried to duplicate a system I failed using this method due to the /boot configuration being specific to the disk layout in the box. That is, if I copied disk A to disk B and then wanted to boot to B I believe I would have to remove A and strap B as the master. Combined SCSI and ATA totally failed on GRUB knowing which disk is which. Ended up having to first install the target slave disk and then moved the disk. Copied everything except /boot. My impression is RAID is the only thing which would work. My goal was actually to create several systems based on the install of one master system. The other systems had random numbers of disks and such. The only way i got it to work was Ch1Master had to be the boot disk in all of them. I mucked around with /boot/grub/grub.conf and device.map to no avail. Thanks, TimJowers --- Sebastien Tremblay <sebastien.tremblay at au.cmpmedica.com> wrote:> Hi, > > I've been playing with CentOS quite a bit lately (and I must say it's > growing on me!! :) and I was now able to convince my boss that we > could get a box and gradually start migrating our hosting from win2k3 > to centos. > > So anyway, I've got a new box at the colo ready up and running - P4 > 3Ghz w/HT 2Ghz RAM 2x70Gb HDD, running Centos4.4 fully up-to-date. Now> my two questions are; > > (1.) In terms of backup, I'd like to have a cron sending out an > nightly incremental backup of user files. I'd also like to have HDA to> be copied backed up entirely (maybe weekly) onto HDB (were're not > going to use 140GB anyway!) so that is hda crashes, I`d swap both of > the hdds and boot from the backup. Now for that second step, I was > reading that dd was quite CPU intensive? Would there be other > alternatives? Advices on doing backups? > > (2.) I've got no physical access to the box, and the box has obviously> no video or sound. Considering this, would it possible to remotely > administer the box using VNC in a GUI environment? - I figured 2Ghz > could probably handle me starting x sometimes...! So if possible.. How> would I do it? I`m assuming there are no `yum install x`.... > > Anyway.. Thanks for any input you may have on the both topics! > > Cheers, > > Seb. > > _____________________________________________________________________ > This message and any attachments are confidential and are solely > intended for the use of the addressee(s). If you are not the intended > recipient please contact the sender by reply email. Please also > disregard the contents of this email and delete and destroy any copies> immediately. CMPMedica Australia Pty Ltd does not accept liability for> the views expressed in this email or for the consequences of any > computer viruses that may be transmitted with this email. Also subject> to copyright, no part of this message should be reproduced ortransmitted without written consent.> _______________________________________________ > CentOS mailing list > CentOS at centos.org > http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos >__________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ CentOS mailing list CentOS at centos.org http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos _____________________________________________________________________ This e-mail has been scanned for viruses by MCI's Internet Managed Scanning Services - powered by MessageLabs. For further information visit http://www.mci.com _____________________________________________________________________ This message and any attachments are confidential and are solely intended for the use of the addressee(s). If you are not the intended recipient please contact the sender by reply email. Please also disregard the contents of this email and delete and destroy any copies immediately. CMPMedica Australia Pty Ltd does not accept liability for the views expressed in this email or for the consequences of any computer viruses that may be transmitted with this email. Also subject to copyright, no part of this message should be reproduced or transmitted without written consent.