[GLLUG] boot strap

[tk3000]

I remember having read about IBM's Tivoli Storage on occasion. It looks quite 
impressive. There are also other tools more refined than dd or tar, but for 
the sake of simplicity I will stick with dd for the time being. But I am 
always looking for other alternatives.

Pedro Wald

On Tuesday 10 May 2005 12:50 pm, Keyes, Randall wrote:
> While it won't help with this particular situation, and I realize it's
> probably an unrealistic option for smaller shops, IBM's Tivoli Storage
> Manager is an awesome tool for backup/restore and archive/retrieve.  I've
> used it to bring back entire NT4/W2K boxes to new hardware and also on
> another occasion to bring back an entire Linux partition.  If you're a
> medium to large shop, you might want to at least consider it as a future
> option.
>
>
> Randy Keyes
> randall.keyes at jnli.com
> 517-367-3976
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: tk3000 [mailto:tk3000 at comcast.net]
> Sent: Monday, May 09, 2005 6:38 PM
> To: STeve Andre'
> Cc: linux-user at egr.msu.edu
> Subject: Re: [GLLUG] boot strap
>
> On Tuesday 10 May 2005 01:53 am, STeve Andre' wrote:
> > On Monday 09 May 2005 17:34, tk3000 wrote:
> > > Hello,
> > >
> > > I was in the process of doing backups of my hds in the form of images.
> > > But I am in doubt with respect to the area of the hd corresponding to
> > > the boot code/strap; I am extracting the boot code and partition table
> > > separately, which, for the boot strap, would be something like:
> > >
> > > A) dd if=/dev/hda of=/mnt/backup.MBRBOOTSTRAPONLY bs=446 count=1
> > > or
> > > B) dd if=/dev/hda of=/mnt/backup.MBRBOOTSTRAPONLY bs=448 count=1
> > >
> > > So, my question is: which is the correct, or more correct; or if the 2
> > > bytes are irrelevant (being one of those reserved areas defined at the
> > > time the xt was launched, and never being used...). I have some sources
> > > that indicate 446 and others that indicate 448; so, I am not quite
> > > sure.
> > >
> > > Thanks in advance,
> > > Pedro Wald
> >
> > I can't speak to the byte specifics of your machine and OS, but the
>
> classic
>
> > bootstrap loader is 446 bytes.  However, it isn't at the beginning of the
> > disk, is it?  Regardless of that, there is the partition table in general
> > to think of.  I'd make sure I have the software to create a new set of
> > partitions, and know the sizes of everything on the disk, rather than
> > make an image backup of it.  Know how to create it and you can always do
> > that. Make an image and you may (will?) have problems using it anywhere
> > else. For backups, I prefer good old plain stupid tar.  You can then move
> > things to a new disk and extract what you want, etc.
> >
> > --STeve Andre'
>
> I understand that it can be problematic to restore. tar is great tool, but
> star has more features (maybe modern distribuitions have tar as an
> alias to star; but I am just guessing). For me image is a good approach for
> fast and complete recovery but I am not relying only on images, I thinking
> that having a multitude of backup strategies can be handy. I believe that
> the main issue of recovery is the size of the partition, I understand (but
> I am not quite sure...) that the key is to define partition sizes using
> cylinders rather than bytes (fdisk, by default, shows the partition and
> allows you to define the partition in terms of bytes). My system is a x86,
> so
> the MBR is located at the very beginning of the disk. For most part the
> bootstrap is pretty generic, but in some circumstances it can be helpfull
> to have a separate backup. Maybe/sometimes the most problematic part is
> having
> to backup and restore logical partitions on extended partitions. tar has
> more
> options and is more flexible when dealing with file objects than dd; but in
> my case I have different boot managers even in different boot sectors all
> over my partition arrangement, so having images can be helpfull too.
> Well, I will take the 446 as the right one. Thks!
>
> Pedro Wald

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