Restore backup during install

[rtechie]

So here's what I want to do:

I have a PXE/imaging server configured to remote install Zentyal onto hardware.

I want to be able to take an existing Zentyal install, backup the server configuration (not the data), and then push that configuration to new servers via PXE installation. Ideally, this process would be automated (i.e. the config is backed up nightly to the PXE server).

I have different solutions in place (drbd and iSCSI SAN storage) to deal with the data.

It looks like Zentyal uses duplicity to back up it's configs, but there doesn't seem to be a lot of documentation on what's in those configs. What I really need is a way to combine a Zentyal duplicity backup with a "fresh" Zentyal install.

So here are my questions:

Just to clarify, it looks like all the data is stored in /home. Is that accurate?

Is anything hardware-specific in a Zentyal backup?

Does anyone have any advice for combining a Zentyal backup with a Zentyal install?

[eboxbuggy]

Just taking a wild swing at this ... how about cloning the entire root partition?

So here's what I want to do:

I have a PXE/imaging server configured to remote install Zentyal onto hardware.

I want to be able to take an existing Zentyal install, backup the server configuration (not the data), and then push that configuration to new servers via PXE installation. Ideally, this process would be automated (i.e. the config is backed up nightly to the PXE server).

I have different solutions in place (drbd and iSCSI SAN storage) to deal with the data.

It looks like Zentyal uses duplicity to back up it's configs, but there doesn't seem to be a lot of documentation on what's in those configs. What I really need is a way to combine a Zentyal duplicity backup with a "fresh" Zentyal install.

So here are my questions:

Just to clarify, it looks like all the data is stored in /home. Is that accurate?

Is anything hardware-specific in a Zentyal backup?

Does anyone have any advice for combining a Zentyal backup with a Zentyal install?

[rtechie]

Do you know any way to clone a mounted root filesystem?

[satyris]

Is anything hardware-specific in a Zentyal backup?

So far i know, you can choose what you want to backup. So when you only backup your Data there should not be anything hardware-specific in it.

Maybe you will find that interessting:
http://doc.ebox-platform.com/en/backup.html

Restore:
duplicity restore --file-to-restore  <file or directory to restore> <remote URL and arguments> <destination>

Do you know any way to clone a mounted root filesystem?

A good way would be clonezilla to make an image, but you have to shutdown the server.

I want to be able to take an existing Zentyal install, backup the server configuration

That should be possible, when you save your configuration files, but havent tried that so far.

[rtechie]

So far i know, you can choose what you want to backup. So when you only backup your Data there should not be anything hardware-specific in it.

Okay... And all the Data is stored in /home, right?

The docs say that by default the entire system is backed up except /mnt, /dev, /media, /sys, /tmp, /var/cache and /proc which covers most of the hardware but INCLUDES /home. So the "Backup" backs up pretty much everything.

So, in theory, I could make a PXE Zentyal image and add a script to it that uses the "restore" app to call rsync or something to push the configuration back separately. Correct?

A good way would be clonezilla to make an image, but you have to shutdown the server.

It wouldn't be mounted then, would it?  This is intended for a production server that is intended to ALWAYS be up, 24/365.