Disaster recovery problems

NethServer Version: 7.6-1810
Module: first run wizard

After my (possibly self-induced) disaster, I ended up installing a fresh hard drive, installing from the 7.6-1810 iso. When the system was up and running, I accessed the server manager from my laptop. I had already copied the backup-config.tar.gz from the NFS backup to a USB drive. I was a bit confused when prompted to select a file by the first-run wizard to find that the USB drive needed to be mounted on my laptop, but got the hint in the end.

The backup-config.tar.gz did its work. Took a long time (the system is in a rural area - broadban speeds aren’t exactly fast there…). At the end of the process, everything seemed to be in place, not just installed modules, but also all the updates.

When I attempted to follow the rest of the disaster recovery process, I hit a problem. restore-data -b <name> was a bit confusing - I wasn’t sure what name to use. Also, something I hadn’t realised: though most things had been restored correctly, the system could not make an NFS connection to the backup location. I had to manually enable NFS support.

I was not aware that the server should not be rebooted at this stage, and I did reboot after setting up NFS support. So now I’m uncertain as to whether it is safe to run the restore command? If so, what name needs to be specified to restore from the last complete data backup? I really don’t want to have to repeat the whole process - the updates take a long time on that broadband connection. Not to mention that I will lose any mail that has come in during the last few hours.

Usually, the command is:

restore-data -b backup-data

Run backup-data without options to receive some hints: See, from my server:

[root@nethservice ~]# backup-data
Usage /sbin/e-smith/backup-data [-b <backup_name>] [-h]
  -b : specify the name of backup to use
  -h : show this help

Use one of the following commands:
  /sbin/e-smith/backup-data -b backup-data
  /sbin/e-smith/backup-data -b fbf
  /sbin/e-smith/backup-data -b usb_rsync

I have three backups configured:

  1. backup-data for DR, using duplicity
  2. fbf in cloud, using restic
  3. usb_rsync, the name says it all

Thanks. I hadn’t realised that in the command

restore-data -b <name>

referred to the backup-type. I was expecting a filename.

Worked fine once I had the backup type in there…