ClearFoundation

I have spent the last week trying to verify that you can do a bare metal restore using the paid service Remote Server Backup. My conclusion is that a bare metal restore is NOT POSSIBLE using the paid service.

I would appreciate if someone could prove me wrong, and show me how to perform such a restore.

I am using 2 identical servers. I config one with all the services I want, do a Backup Settings and then have the Remote Server Backup service perform a backup into their remote servers. All fine and dandy. Backups get listed and all is good.

Now, turn off server 1. Fire up server 2, reinstall ClearOS 5.2, and get it all setup the same as before. Restore from Backup Settings file, which works great. Now server 2 is configured like server 1. All I need is the backup data restored.

Register sever 2 as a replacement for server 1. All good. Go to Remote Server Backup and viola, NO history. NO restore images. Nothing.

I have tried so many things to get to the server 1 backup files, but server 2 is not recognized as the same system ID, therefore it doesn't list the backups.

If you go into the portal and delete system 1, then the backup files get deleted as well.

So...........somehow there needs to be a way for system 2 to get access to system 1's backup files, but I can't figure it out.

Any ideas?????????

Thanks for any help or ideas !!

-mark

Mark,

It certainly is possible.

"NO history. NO restore images. Nothing."

Did you refresh the back up history after setting the file-system key? If not, you won't see any snapshots.

hi darryl,

yes, hitting refresh doesn't show anything. believe me, i've hit that button a lot in my testing.

if i put back server1 and re-register it, all the backups and history are there.
if i put back server2 and re-register it, no history. no backups. nothing.

it seems like the remote server backup history and backup list are system specific. an identical system, with a different motherboard and drive of course, when registered won't see the backups or history.

it's very frustrating. i'm not going to deploy clearos until i can go through the entire backup and bare-metal restore with confidence. so far, i haven't been able to.

btw, i've used clark connect since the 2.x days, so i've been pretty familiar with the development path. i'd love to get my boxes from cc3.2 to clearos5.2, but not without a backup/restore procedure.

thanks.

wait wait..... i just re-read your post.

file-system key???? do you mean Security Key under the Remote Server Backup - Configuration tab?

when you change the Security Key, it warns you that all your backups will be deleted. Now, is that talking about deleting the backups on the remote server or deleting the backup list on the local server? it's not clear what gets deleted when you change the Security Key.

thanks,
-mark

Today I verfied, again, that a bare metal restore using remote server backup does not work.
So, unless someone details out exact steps that allow this, I will continue to state that the Remote Server Backup is NOT a viable backup utility for ClearOS installations on new hardware (i.e. Bare Metal Restore). You can restore just fine onto the exact same motherboard; I proved that works great. But, you can not restore back onto new hardware.

I guess I just wasted my money on the Remote Server Backup subscription.

Remember, a Backup method is only as good as it's ability to Restore. And just allowing a restore to a new hard drive is NOT a complete Backup & Restore system. It's great when the drive goes down, but completely useless if a motherboard goes down.

-Mark



In case anyone wants to verify themselves, here are the restore steps:

Server1 = original server, which dies.
Server2 = new replacement server.
Server1 = Server2 = same motherboard type, drive, ram, etc.

- Server1
-- Backup settings and download settings file.
-- Configure Remote Server Backup to backup mail, files, databases, etc. Set and remember Security Key.
-- Remote Server Backup performs regular scheduled daily backups.
-- Verify backups in History tab. All backups passed and are listed in History.

- Shutdown and remove Server1.
- Install Server2
-- Config for exact same domain and IP number.
-- Upload Backup Settings file and verify ClearOS is configured same as Server1.
-- Register Server2 as a re-install of an existing system.
-- Go to ClearOS SDN Remote Server Backup subscription service.
-- Under Configuration, set Security Key to match Server1 Security Key.
-- Go to History tab. Nothing is listed.
--- Hit Refresh. Nothing is listed.
-- Go to Backup tab. No snapshots listed.
--- Hit Refresh. Still, nothing listed.
-- Go to Restore tab. No backups in popup to restore from.

.......In other words, all the previous backups are NOT listed with this new hardware installation...........

- Shutdown and remove Server2.
- Install Server1.
-- Register Server1 again as a re-install of an existing system.
-- Go to Clear SDN Remote Backup subscription service.
-- Go to History tab. All backups are listed.
-- Go to Backup tab. All snapshots are listed.
-- Go to Restore tab. All backups are listed in the popup.

------The backups are somehow linked to the hardware of the backed up server. You cannot use new hardware to access the backup up files and snapshots............

Mark,

That's very odd. There must be bug. This procedure works when I tested it.

If you try this again, can you try a manual snapshot update from the command line and paste any output here? I would be very interested to see what message you're getting back from our server.

# /var/webconfig/scripts/rbs-client.php -vTH

This command will attempt to login and fetch the history and snapshot list from our server.

Mark,

I think I have found the issue. I have repeatedly installed a system, performed a system configuration backup, re-installed the system (re-registered), and then restored the previous backup. Upon doing this several times I have replicated the problem that you describe above twice. After digging through log files, both on the client and on our server(s), it appears that this is a key caching problem. If you re-register a box within 10 minutes of the last backup, the old system hostkey is used. This results in failed connections to the remote backup server. I have just verified that if I wait for 10 minutes or more then the history/snapshot update is successful.

If you run through your above test again, but wait at least 10 minutes before clicking on the Refresh button, I suspect this should work for you too.

In terms of "fixing" this, and I put fixing in quotes because it's not really a bug (we have to cache certain things like keys or we would needlessly require massive database infrastructure for such look-ups), I will look at the technical requirements for purging cached keys that have been re-registered. However this won't be a high priority as it's not likely clients will need to restore data to a re-registered box within 10 minutes of their last backup.

If you have the time, it would be helpful if you could verify this one way or the other...

hi darryl,

i was in the midst of testing again when i saw this new post. ok, sounds very interesting. yes, i understand about the cache; you absolutely need them.

i will try this test again, but with the time delays you so mentioned and see what happens. it'll be a couple days until i can get around to a full test, but i'll post my results one way or the other.

thanks for the work.

-mark

hi darryl,

i tried doing another restore, this time i completely turned off server1 for an hour, then i registered server2 (a new install) as a reinstall of server1.

going into the clearcenter portal, i can see the backups listed for server1, so the clearcenter servers do show the correct backups.

going into server2 remote server backup, i set the security key. again, no history is listed. no backups are listed. server2 is registered as a reinstall of server1, but again, no backups are listed. i hit refresh, still nothing listed. no chance to restore since no backups are listed.

i ran the command you sent over on the box...

/var/webconfig/scripts/rbs-client.php -vTH

here is the output....

[31/Aug/2011:19:22:37 -0700] Initializing RBS Client: Refresh History Mode
[31/Aug/2011:19:22:37 -0700] DEBUG: ControlSocketWrite: 100:2.1:54e15008e385cfa74ab75de832b97e12
[31/Aug/2011:19:22:38 -0700] WARNING: rbs.inc.php:2104: socket_read(): unable to read from socket [104]: Connection reset by peer
[31/Aug/2011:19:22:38 -0700] ERROR: [ControlSocketException::CODE_READ] ControlSocketException

any ideas??

thanks,
-mark

mark bain wrote:
hi darryl,

i was in the midst of testing again when i saw this new post. ok, sounds very interesting. yes, i understand about the cache; you absolutely need them.

i will try this test again, but with the time delays you so mentioned and see what happens. it'll be a couple days until i can get around to a full test, but i'll post my results one way or the other.

thanks for the work.

-mark


ok, the testing results are in. remote server backup is not capable of doing a bare metal restore onto new hardware. if you have a dead drive, then remote server backup will allow you to replace the drive and quickly get your last backup restored onto it. but......if you have a new motherboard, or new computer system, then you cannot restore onto it.

so, remote server backup is useful for drive failures, but that's about it. if you're paranoid about dying drives, then use remote server backup. if you think your server motherboard is going to die, then find another method of backup and restore.

what darryl has stated about hostkeys is correct. the issue i am seeing is with those keys. if your hostkey is the same as when you were doing backups, then you can see and restore from your previous backups. if your hostkey is not the same, then you can not see your previous backups, thus you cannot restore from them.

so for a fix, there needs to be a way to change the hostkey associated with the previously saved backup images on the remote backup server system. otherwise you'll never be able to see them or restore from them.

so for now, i'm going back to my previous backup procedures, which i used on clarkconnect...using webmin and myphpadmin to save off images to my own backup server. i've verified that i can backup and restore clearos onto a completely different server system, so that gives me some peace of mind. but i won't be using the remote server backup module, even though i paid for a year of it. it isn't enough protection for me.

-mark