can someone tell me how to backup an entire harddisk including OS etc via ftp or ssh to another server? and also how to restore from this?

basically i will be having a rh7.1 typical install and want it backed up so that if i mess up some important files etc, i can restore without habinf to worry about troubling my host for a restore...

sidenote: is it possible to install rh7.1 from a remote location?

is this even possible? if this is a complicated process please point me to some docs on this.
thanks for all the great help so far!

Yes, its possible. There are new servers available with out-of-band access, where you can basically access the console remotely (without even bootup). I have yet to see any offer of such service though. Must be expensive.

Regarding backup, you'll have to make backup of each and every configuration file you have touched (you can leave the default ones). Plus you won't be able to do auto-magical restore either.

Usually your data files are in separate directories, so even if you have to do OS restore, you can just restore the data directories, a few important config files and be up asap.

If you plan on doing this, I would recomend doing it on a local server, you dont want send that amount of info over your line. I would recomend adding another nic to the server and doing it that way.

Hi..

There is a shell script for sun cobalt RaQ servers to perform backup from one machine to another through FTP. I do not know if it will work on a standard linux box but I think if directories tree are modified it will do the job.

Anyway, here is the link below to d/load the script and procedure is explained in details.


http://www.neuhaus-internet.de/cobalt/raqbackup/

Al-Juhani

you can backup almost 98% with tar cmd as well :) Of course there are file size limits etc

ps. don't forget to compress the tar file before you download it ;)

I found 'Amanda' on the O'Reilly site. Has anyone here used this open source program?

www.amanda.org

Basmah:)