[CCP14 Home: (Frames | No Frames)]
CCP14 Mirrors: [UK] | [CA] | [US] | [AU]
(This Webpage Page in No Frames Mode)

Collaborative Computational Project Number 14

for Single Crystal and Powder Diffraction

CCP14

Using the GPL'd Mondorescue for Linux to create easy Linux system disaster recovery backups on bootable SCSI or Atapi/IDE CD-ROMs

The CCP14 Homepage is at http://www.ccp14.ac.uk
[Back to CCP14 Web/Config Main Page]
[CCP14 Mondorescue homepage | [Why use Mondorescue | Where to get Mondorescue | Compiling and installing Mondorescue]
[CD-ROM backups] | [DVD and DVD-RAM backups] | [Misc Mondorescue information] |

Why use Mondorescue for Linux

Mondorescue is free and has some incredibly powerful options for making disaster recovery backups. It creates Bootable CDs that can easily recover (or recover a subset of) the entire system, all one has to do is insert the CD and reboot the server. Mondorescue also creates the archives in a format such that it is tolerant of corrupted regions of the CD (you don't lose everything - only the files on the affected region). This is in contrast to other common UNIX backup methods which stream a single archive file to the backup media.

If you have initial problems with Mondorescue, stick with it as it is a strange work of genius and can make complicated backup problems with Linux very simple. (Mondorescue will also stream to tape and backup onto other disks) Using the Mondorescue mailing list can also help with various queries.

Where to get Mondorescue for Linux

Compiling and Installing Mondorescue for Linux

(this is using Mondorescue 1.4x)

Before installing Mondorescue, it requires that certain packages be available on the system. Do "rpm -q" or a "which" on the following to make sure you have them. If not, download and install. The latest versions should be linked from the Mondorescue download page.

  • afio
  • buffer
  • bzip2
  • cdrecord
  • isolinux
  • lzo
  • lzop
  • mkisofs
  • newt
  • slang

If newt gives an error on installing, go to the line the compiler says the error is on and put an extra ">" to fix this up.

To burn DVDs on Linux, you may need the latest dvdrecord for UNIX/Linux from http://www.freesoftware.fsf.org/dvdrtools/.

If compiling up a version, check out the ./DEFAULTS/Defaults.linux file and change the install to /usr if required.

Also note the tricks given below for getting cdrecord to recognise IDE/Atapi CD and DVD devices.

Mindi then Mondorescue 1.4x

  • First install Mindi. Grab the tar.gz of mindi matching the date and time of the version of Mondo you are going to use. Extract the tar.gz using gzip -d < mindi-xxxxx.tgz | tar xvof -. As root go into the subdirectory and run ./install.sh

  • To extract the install file, grab the most recent tar.gz of the stable release (not the latest beta version) of Mondo rescue from the Mondorestore website and type gzip -d < mondo-1.43xxxxxx.tgz | tar xvof -

  • Go into the mondo-1.43 subdirectory and then do:
    • ./configure
    • make
    • Then as root: make install
    • done!

    • As root (su - ), now run mindi and see if it can successfully create an iso boot image. Try testing this image out by burning to a CD and booting the system up.

Mindi then Mondorescue 1.5x beta version (changing over time)

  • First install Mindi. Grab the tar.gz of mindi matching the date and time of the version of Mondo you are going to use. Extract the tar.gz using gzip -d < mindi-xxxxx.tgz | tar xvof -. As root go into the subdirectory and run ./install.sh

  • To extract the install file, grab the most recent tar.gz of the stable release (not the latest beta version) of Mondo rescue from the Mondorestore website and type gzip -d < mondo-1.50xxxxx.tgz | tar xvof -

  • As root, type ./install.sh
  • As root (su - ), now run mindi and see if it can successfully create an iso boot image. Try testing this image out by burning to a CD and booting the system up.

Examples of using Mondorescue for backups

As root: Script sequence for general backup

Note: For DVD-RAM backups, always do a mke2fs -b 2048 /dev/hdd on the DVD-RAM disks to make sure they are empty. Thus if the backup fails, this will be obvious - and not confused by having an older backup already

  1. System backup via Mondorescue 1.5x onto a single DVD-RAM disc
  2. Weblogs backup via Mondorescue 1.5x onto 2x DVD-RAM discs
  3. HTML Webstats backup via using the cp/copy command onto a single DVD-RAM disc
  4. Important non-mirrored HTML CCP14 Web files onto a single DVD-RAM disc

  5. If time permits, a system backup onto CD ISO Images in /tmp/isos ( /usr/local/bin/mondosysbackup )

Linux system backup onto DVD-RAM disk
Before inserting a DVD-RAM disc, make sure it is physically set for read/write
mke2fs -b 2048 /dev/hdd
/usr/local/bin/mondodvdsysbackup
On taking out the DVD-RAM disk, physically set it to read only

Weblogs backup onto 2x DVD-RAM disks
Before inserting a DVD-RAM disc, make sure it is physically set for read/write
mke2fs -b 2048 /dev/hdd
/usr/local/bin/mondodvdweblogs
On taking out the DVD-RAM disk, physically set it to read only

webstats html backup onto DVD-RAM disk
Before inserting a DVD-RAM disc, make sure it is physically set for read/write
mke2fs -b 2048 /dev/hdd
/root/backup/statshtml_backup.script
On taking out the DVD-RAM disk, physically set it to read only

CCP14 HTML and non-mirroredfiles backup onto DVD-RAM disk
Before inserting a DVD-RAM disc, make sure it is physically set for read/write
mke2fs -b 2048 /dev/hdd
/root/backup/webdata_backup.script
On taking out the DVD-RAM disk, physically set it to read only

[CCP14 Mondorescue homepage | [Why use Mondorescue | Where to get Mondorescue | Compiling and installing Mondorescue]
[CD-ROM backups] | [DVD and DVD-RAM backups] | [Misc Mondorescue information] |
[CCP14 Home: (Frames | No Frames)]
CCP14 Mirrors: [UK] | [CA] | [US] | [AU]
(This Webpage Page in No Frames Mode)
If you have any queries or comments, please feel free to contact the CCP14