Hello, I'm not an unix (Solaris) expert, so I'd need your help. I have to backup the system (solaris 7, 8 and 9). I think best solution would be ufsdump, but I'd need a kind of step by step instructions. Scenario is to backup the system into a file and store the file on network or a cd. Recovery should need as less time as possible. So, what is best solution? To recover from network, a cd or something else? Thx! Klemen

ufsdump is the best recovery option for solaris. To recover, you should boot from something other than the corrupted file system such as a CD or a network. Here are details on making a bootable recovery CD for solaris. http://mah.everybody.org/docs/bootable-cdrom-for-solaris Hal Pomeranz did a great paper on using Jumpstart for OS installs and recoveries. http://www.deer-run.com/~hal/jumpstart/

Thanks David, I'll give a try. But please tell me, how to store the backup file on the network or where to store it? (My current idea is to boot from a bootable CD created by Mark A. Hershberger's recipe and then in system at that state run ufsdump) Regards, Klemen

Store the dump files on a NFS server. Ideally the system should be in a single user mode when doing a ufsdump but near zero disk activity should be OK. Booting from a CD with network support is perfect. In the following example, change the IP and share information to reflect an NFS server in your network. You could also write dump files to a series of tapes, 1 tape / slice but network restores are much quicker. #!/bin/sh hostname=`hostname | cut -f 1 -d '.'` NFSSERVER=192.168.1.1 if [ `mount | grep -c $NFSSERVER` -eq 0 ] ; then mount $NFSSERVER:/exports/dumpfiles/$hostname /mnt fi df -k | grep c0t > /tmp/slice cat /tmp/slice | while read rdsk kbytes used avail capacity mounted ; do if [ "$mounted" = "/" ] ; then slice="root" else slice=`echo $mounted | sed -e 's,^/,,'` fi echo $slice ufsdump 0uf - $mounted | compress > /mnt/$slice.dump.Z done ufsdump 0uf - / | compress > /mnt/root.dump.Z umount /mnt