How to Clone/Backup Linux Systems Using – Mondo Rescue Disaster Recovery Tool

Here is very good HOW-TO regarding backup of Linux System. I am puting here just in case it is lost on original site http://www.tecmint.com/how-to-clone-linux-systems/ 

Mondo Rescue is an open source, free disaster recovery and backup utility that allows you to easily create complete system (Linux or Windows) Clone/Backup ISO Images to CD, DVD, Tape, USB devices, Hard Disk, and NFS. And can be used to quickly restore or redeploy working image into other systems, in the event of data loss, you will be able to restore as much as entire system data from backup media.
Mondo program is available freely for download and released under GPL (GNU Public License) and has been tested on a large number of Linux distributions.
This article describes Mondo installation and usage of Mondo Tools to backup of your entire systems. The Mondo Rescue is a Disaster Recovery and Backup Solutions for System Administrators to take full backup of their Linux and Windows file system partitions into CD/DVD, Tape, NFS and restore them with the help of Mondo Restore media feature that uses at boot-time.

Installing MondoRescue on RHEL / CentOS / Scientific Linux

The latest Mondo Rescue packages (current version of Mondo is 3.0.3-1) can be obtained from the “MondoRescue Repository“. Use “wget” command to download and add repository under your system. The Mondo repository will install suitable binary software packages such as afio, buffer, mindi, mindi-busybox, mondo and mondo-doc for your distribution, if they are available.

For RHEL/CentOS/SL 6,5,4 – 32-Bit

Download the MondoRescue repository under “/etc/yum.repos.d/” as file name “mondorescue.repo“. Please download correct repository for your Linux OS distribution version.

# cd /etc/yum.repos.d/

## On RHEL/CentOS/SL 6 - 32-Bit ##
# wget ftp://ftp.mondorescue.org/rhel/6/i386/mondorescue.repo

## On RHEL/CentOS/SL 5 - 32-Bit ##
# wget ftp://ftp.mondorescue.org/rhel/5/i386/mondorescue.repo

## On RHEL/CentOS/SL 4 - 32-Bit ##
# wget ftp://ftp.mondorescue.org/rhel/4/i386/mondorescue.repo

For RHEL/CentOS/SL 6,5,4 – 64-Bit

# cd /etc/yum.repos.d/

## On RHEL/CentOS/SL 6 - 64-Bit ##
# wget ftp://ftp.mondorescue.org/rhel/6/x86_64/mondorescue.repo

## On RHEL/CentOS/SL 5 - 64-Bit ##
# wget ftp://ftp.mondorescue.org/rhel/5/x86_64/mondorescue.repo

## On RHEL/CentOS/SL 4 - 64-Bit ##
# wget ftp://ftp.mondorescue.org/rhel/4/x86_64/mondorescue.repo

Once you successfully added repository, do “yum” to install latest Mondo tool.

# yum install mondo

Installing MondoRescue on Debian / Ubuntu / Linux Mint

Debian user’s can do “wget” to grab the MondoRescue repository for Debain 6 and 5 distributions. Run the following command to add “mondorescue.sources.list” to “/etc/apt/sources.list” file to install Mondo packages.

On Debian

## On Debian 6 ##
# wget ftp://ftp.mondorescue.org/debian/6/mondorescue.sources.list
# sh -c "cat mondorescue.sources.list >> /etc/apt/sources.list" 
# apt-get update 
# apt-get install mondo

## On Debian 5 ##
# wget ftp://ftp.mondorescue.org/debian/5/mondorescue.sources.list
# sh -c "cat mondorescue.sources.list >> /etc/apt/sources.list" 
# apt-get update 
# apt-get install mondo

On Ubuntu/Linux Mint

To install Mondo Rescue in Ubuntu 12.10, 12.04, 11.10, 11.04, 10.10 and 10.04 or Linux Mint 13, open the terminal and add the MondoRescue repository in “/etc/apt/sources.list” file. Run these following commands to install Mondo Resuce packages.

# wget ftp://ftp.mondorescue.org/ubuntu/`lsb_release -r|awk '{print $2}'`/mondorescue.sources.list
# sh -c "cat mondorescue.sources.list >> /etc/apt/sources.list" 
# apt-get update 
# apt-get install mondo

Creating Cloning or Backup ISO Image of System/Server

After installing Mondo, Run “mondoarchive” command as “root” user. Then follow screenshots that shows how to create an ISO based backup media of your full system.

# mondoarchive

Welcome to Mondo Rescue

Mondo Rescue Welcome Screen

Please enter the full path name to the directory for your ISO Images. For example: /mnt/backup/

Mondo Rescue Storage Directory

Select Type of compression. For example: bzip, gzip or lzo.

Select Type of Compression

Select the maximum compression option.

Select Compression Speed

Please enter how large you want each ISO image in MB (Megabytes). This should be less than or equal to the size of the CD-R(W)’s (i.e. 700) and for DVD’s (i.e. 4480).

Define Mondo Rescue ISO Size

Please give a name of your ISO image filename. For example: tecmint1 to obtain tecmint-[1-9]*.iso files.

Enter Name of Mondo Rescue

Please add the filesystems to backup (separated by “|“). The default filesystem is “/” means full backup.

Enter Backup Paths

Please exclude the filesystem that you don’t want to backup (separated by “|“). For example: “/tmp” and “/proc” are always excluded or if you want full backup of your system, just hit enter.

Enter Exclude File System

Please enter your temporary directory path or select default one.

Enter Temporary Directory Name

Please enter your scratch directory path or select default one.

Enter Scratch Directory Name

If you would like to backup extended attributes. Just hit “enter“.

Enter Extended Backup Attributes

If you want to Verify your backup, after mondo has created them. Click “Yes“.

Verify Backups

If you’re using stable standalone Linux Kernel, click “Yes” or if you using other Kernel say “Gentoo” or “Debain” hit “No“.

Select Stable Linux Kernel

Click “Yes” to proceed further.

Proceed Cloning Process

Creating a catalog of “/” filesystem.

Creating Catalog for File System

Dividing filelist into sets.

Dividing File List

Calling MINDI to create boot+data disk.

Creating Boot Data Disk

Backing up filesytem. It may take a couple of hours, please be patient.

Backing up File System

Backing up big files.

Big Files Backup

Running “mkisofs” to make ISO Image.

Making ISO Image

Verifying ISO Image tarballs.

Verify ISO

Verifying ISO Image Big files.

Verify Big Files

Finally, Mondo Archive has completed. Please hit “Enter” to back to the shell prompt.

Backup Completed

If you’ve selected default backup path, you will see an ISO image under “/var/cache/mondo/“, that you can burnt into a CD/DVD for later restore.
To restore all files automatically, boot the system with Mondo ISO Image and at boot prompt type “nuke” to restore files. Here is the detailed video that demonstrates how to restore files automatically from CD/DVD media.

For other distributions, you can also grab Mondo Rescue packages at mondorescue.org download page.

Installing Pure-FTPd on Centos and creating virtual users

FTP virtual user is a user that can upload file on behalf of system user. For example you have a OS user “pradono” and the home directory is /home/pradono, a virtual user “test1″ that is setup on behalf of “pradono”, can upload file to /home/pradono/test1 and the file uploaded will have the ownership as “pradono”.

1. Installing Pure-FTPd using yum

Let’s start by adding an additional CentOS repo

[root@prod1 ~]# cd /etc/yum.repos.d/ [root@prod1 /etc/yum.repos.d]# wget http://centos.karan.org/kbsingh-CentOS-Extras.repo

And enable kbs-CentOS-Testing by editing /etc/yum.repos.d/kbsingh-CentOS-Extras.repo

[root@prod1 /etc/yum.repos.d]# nano -w kbsingh-CentOS-Extras.repo

Change enabled=0 to enabled=1

[...] [kbs-CentOS-Testing] name=CentOS.Karan.Org-EL$releasever - Testing gpgcheck=0 gpgkey=http://centos.karan.org/RPM-GPG-KEY-karan.org.txt enabled=1 baseurl=http://centos.karan.org/el$releasever/extras/testing/$basearch/RPMS/

Import the repo key

[root@prod1 /etc/yum.repos.d]# rpm --import http://centos.karan.org/RPM-GPG-KEY-karan.org.txt

Install pure-ftpd.

[root@prod1 /etc/yum.repos.d]# yum -y install pure-ftpd

2. Edit the Pure-FTPd config file

[root@prod1 /etc/yum.repos.d]# cd /etc/pure-ftpd/ [root@prod1 /etc/pure-ftpd]# nano -w pure-ftpd.conf

Make sure you have these options enabled

[...] # If you want simple Unix (/etc/passwd) authentication, uncomment this UnixAuthentication yes # If you want to log all client commands, set this to "yes". # This directive can be duplicated to also log server responses. VerboseLog yes # PureDB user database (see README.Virtual-Users) PureDB /etc/pure-ftpd/pureftpd.pdb # Automatically create home directories if they are missing CreateHomeDir yes

The CreateHomeDir option makes adding virtual users more easy by creating a user’s home directory upon login (if it doesn’t already exist).

3. Import OS users to Pure-FTPd FTP Users (Optional)

We can either import users with system-level accounts (defined in /etc/passwd) at once or create new users manually using pure-pw useradd. To import users that already exist on your system into the virtual user database, enter these commands:
The name has to be pureftpd.passwd. This creates pureftpd.passwd file.
pure-pw mkdb imports pureftpd.passwd to the puredb file, in this example /etc/pure-ftpd/pureftpd.pdb.

[root@prod1 /etc/pure-ftpd]# pure-pwconvert >> pureftpd.passwd [root@prod1 /etc/pure-ftpd]# pure-pw mkdb

Update: Just use UnixAuthentication yes in your pure-ftpd.conf file and you don’t need step 3 above.

4. Add a virtual user.

This adds a virtual user “test” to pureftpd.pass file

[root@prod1 /etc/pure-ftpd]# pure-pw useradd test -u doniking -g doniking -d /home/doniking/test Password:

Again, this imports the updated pureftpd.passwd file into a puredb file.

[root@prod1 /etc/pure-ftpd]# pure-pw mkdb

5. Testing.

We haven’t restarted pure-ftpd service yet until now. Let’s restart it.

[root@prod1 /etc/pure-ftpd]# service pure-ftpd restart Stopping pure-ftpd: [ OK ] Starting pure-ftpd: [ OK ]

Test the user

[root@prod1 /etc/pure-ftpd]# ftp localhost Connected to doniking.lan. 220---------- Welcome to Pure-FTPd [privsep] [TLS] ---------- 220-You are user number 2 of 50 allowed. 220-Local time is now 00:47. Server port: 21. 220-IPv6 connections are also welcome on this server. 220 You will be disconnected after 15 minutes of inactivity. 500 This security scheme is not implemented 500 This security scheme is not implemented KERBEROS_V4 rejected as an authentication type Name (localhost:root): test 331 User test OK. Password required Password: 230-User test has group access to: 500 230 OK. Current directory is / Remote system type is UNIX. Using binary mode to transfer files. ftp>

6. Notes.

- Every time you add a virtual user, run

[root@prod1 /etc/pure-ftpd]# pure-pw mkdb

to import pureftpd.passwd to pureftpd.pdb.
- If you want to enable the OS users to ftp, you don’t need to use pure-pwconvert command as others suggest. Simply enable

UnixAuthentication yes

in your /etc/pure-ftpd/pure-ftpd.conf config file.

How to add Two Gateway on same Linux machine

Q:I have one test server that has Two Interfaces. To one interface i have assigned ip 172.16.122.1 and GW 172.16.xxx.xxx
Now i connected cable to second interface and gave it ip 10.2.2.98.
Now they both on different subnets.
So how do I add the second gateway in /etc/sysconfig/network file. And when i will try to ping then through which interface will it ping the remote system.

A:Technically you can have multiple default gateways but that is the realm of core internet servers, network load balancers, and so on for the most part.

Much more common is a requirement for multiple routes, each with its own router.
Example: You have a computer sitting between two networks, like this: 192.168.1.5/24 and 192.168.2.5/24
You use 192.168.1.1 as Default Gateway - that is the default route for anything not locally attached. Locally attached is explicitly defined as anything which is in any of the subnets on which you have an interface in the UP/RUNNING state and for which there is no explicit static route defined.
In this configuration you already have three routes: A route for everything locally on 192.16.8.1.0/24, with the gateway being your own IP address on that subnet. You have a similar route for the systems on 192.168.2.0/24... And finally you have a default route, that being for "0.0.0.0" pointing to the default gateway. (There are also some other "psuedo" routes on some operating systems, eg for accessing the loopback device, or for broadcast traffic)
Now say there is a router at 192.168.2.2 which provides access to a number of networks. Usually these are "internal" networks. You can now add "static routes" to these networks. Example for a network with subnet 192.168.5.0/24
Linux Example:

route add -net 192.168.5.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 gw 192.168.2.2

You can add multiple "static" routes through one router, or routes can use as many routers/gateways as needed.
You can view the table of known routes with the command

netstat -rn

The Linux specific command will show the same information in a slightly different format.

ip route show

The router(s) specified must "know" how to reach the target network, otherwise it will go to its own default gateway and forward your packets that way.
To make this configuration changes persistent you need to add it to the system configuration files. Static routes are relevant to one specific interface so they do not go into /etc/sysconfig/network. In stead these go into files located in /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/

For example: /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/route-eth0
You add "via" entries into this file for routes. These lines read like "Access network X via gateway Y on Network interface device Z.
Example

default 192.168.1.1 dev eth0
192.168.5.0/24 via 192.168.2.2 dev eth0
192.168.6.0/24 via 192.168.2.2 dev eth0

And so on.

How To Backup ESXi Configuration – The Missing Piece

“How do I Backup my ESXi USB Key?” Other than ripping the USB key out of a production machine… how was the user to do this? Well, vMA and the vCLI provide a method for this:

Backing up your ESXi Configuration:

To backup your ESXi configuration you’ll be using the vicfg-cfgbackup.pl command as follows:

• Download either the vMA or vCLI
• Launch vicfg-cfgbackup.pl:
  C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware vSphere CLI\bin>vicfg-cfgbackup.pl –save –server 192.168.15.253 –username root –password password backup.bak
• Note: The backup will be stored relative to your user “AppData” path:
  C:\Users\Username\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\

Restoring your ESXi Configuration:

Restoring your ESXi config can be done after you have the host up and responding over the network again by using the following:
C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware vSphere CLI\bin>vicfg-cfgbackup.pl –load –server 192.168.15.253 –username root –password password backup.bak
Note: You will be asked to reboot the host on restore.
Backing  up multiple hosts! – There is a script to backup multiple ESXi hosts on the VMware communities site here. Also in PowerCLI here!