[OpenIndiana-discuss] What is the recommended way to back up root pool?

[Tim Mooney]

In regard to: Re: [OpenIndiana-discuss] What is the recommended way to back...:

> The last thing I ever thought I would do was to speak highly of AIX, the Unix 
> with the equivalent of the Windows registry (ODM database), but AIX has a way 
> to back up and restore an existing (configured) system to a new/blank disk.

Same, but I totally agree that 'mksysb' is one of things where AIX has
one up on the competition.  And mksysb has existed for 20+ years...

Mention "bootable tape" to a junior admin these days and watch the
expression on their face...

> (Scope) creeping out further, can any of the *BSD's or Lunux distro's do a 
> full system restore to blank disk?

The commercial, enterprise backup solution my workplace uses for Windows
& Linux ostensibly supports bare metal recovery (BMR), but I've vowed to
never even attempt it.

Just MHO, but automated installation (jumpstart, kickstart, etc.) +
rigorous use of a configuration management system (puppet, ansible,
chef, etc.) is the way to go for OS config.  It's probably both faster
and (almost certainly) safer to do that for OS config than to try
recover the entire OS over the top of an install.

We do back up the OS, for the one offs or the potential for stuff that
someone configures outside of a configuration management system, but
I would never use traditional OS backups for a BMR.

Tim
-- 
Tim Mooney                                             Tim.Mooney at ndsu.edu
Enterprise Computing & Infrastructure                  701-231-1076 (Voice)
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