1REAR(8) REAR(8)
2
6 rear - bare metal disaster recovery tool
7
9 rear [-dDsSvV] [-r KERNEL] COMMAND [-- ARGS...]
10
12 Relax and Recover (abbreviated Rear) is a highly modular disaster
13 recovery framework for GNU/Linux based systems, but can be easily
14 extended to other UNIX alike systems. The disaster recovery information
15 can be stored and used via the network, local on hard disks or USB
16 devices, DVD/CD-R. The result is also a bootable image that is capable
17 of booting via PXE, DVD/CD.
18 The disaster recovery can be integrated with any existing backup
20 software so that Rear utilizes the backup software to restore the files
21 and provides the "glue" surrounding the simple file restore to having a
22 full bare metal disaster recovery solution. Support for specific backup
23 software has to be added to rear on an individual base and is very
24 simple (look at an existing implementation for further information).
25 Relax and Recover comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; for details see
27 the GNU General Public License at: http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html
28
30 GLOBAL OPTIONS
31 -d
32 debug mode (log debug messages to log file)
34 -D
36 debugscript mode (log every function call)
38 -r KERNEL
40 kernel version to use (by default use running kernel)
41 -s
43 simulation mode (show what scripts rear would include)
45 -S
47 step-by-step mode (acknowledge each script individually)
49 -v
51 verbose mode (show progress output)
53 -V
55 version information
56 COMMANDS
58 checklayout
59 check if the disk layout has changed since the last run of
60 mkbackup/mkrescue
61 dump
63 dump configuration and system information; please run this to
64 verify your setup
65 format
67 format and label USB or tape media to be used with rear;
68 first argument is the USB or tape device to use, eg. /dev/sdX or
70 /dev/stX
71 help
73 print full list of commands and options
74 mkbackup
76 create rescue media and backup the system (only for internal backup
77 methods)
78 mkbackuponly
80 backup the system (only for internal backup methods) without
81 creating rescue media
82 mkrescue
84 create rescue media only
85 recover
87 recover the system; can be used only when running from the rescue
88 media
89 validate
91 submit validation information
92 Use rear -v help for more advanced commands.
94
96 The process of bare metal disaster recovery consists of two parts:
97 · Recreate the system layout
99 · Restore the data to the system
101 Most backup software solutions are very good at restoring data but do
103 not support recreating the system layout. Relax and Recover is very
104 good at recreating the system layout but and works best when used
105 together with a supported backup software.
106 In this combination Rear recreates the system layout and calls the
108 backup software to restore the actual data. Thus there is no
109 unnessecary duplicate data storage and the Rear rescue media can be
110 very small.
111 For demonstration and special use purposes Rear also includes an
113 internal backup method, NETFS, which can be used to create a simple
114 tar.gz archive of the system. For all permanent setups we recommend
115 using something more professional for backup, either a traditional
116 backup software (open source or commercial) or rsync with hardlink
117 based solutions, e.g. RSYNC BACKUP MADE EASY.
118
120 Currently Rear supports the following backup methods. Please
121 distinguish carefully between Rear support for 3rd party backup
122 software and Rear internal backup methods. The latter also creates a
123 backup of your data while the former will only integrate Rear with the
124 backup software to restore the data with the help of the backup
125 software without actually creating backups. This means that for all
126 non-internal backup software you must take care of creating backups
127 yourself.
128 Especially the rear mkbackup command can be confusing as it is only
130 useful for the internal backup methods and has no function at all with
131 the other backup methods. The following backup methods need to be set
132 in Rear with the BACKUP= option.
133 DP
135 Use HP Data Protector to restore the data.
136 EXTERNAL
138 Internal backup method that uses an arbitrary external command to
139 create a backup and restore the data.
140 GALAXY
142 Use CommVault Galaxy 5 to restore the data.
143 GALAXY7
145 Use CommVault Galaxy 7 to restore the data.
146 NBU
148 Use Symantec NetBackup to restore the data.
149 NETFS
151 Internal backup method which can be used to create a simple backup
152 (tar archive).
153 REQUESTRESTORE
155 (default) Not really a backup method at all, Rear simply halts the
157 recovery and requests that somebody will restore the data to the
158 appropriate location (e.g. via SSH). This method works especially
159 well with an rsync bases backup that is pushed back to the backup
160 client.
161 RSYNC
163 Use rsync to restore data.
164 TSM
166 Use IBM Tivoli Storage Manager to restore the data. The Rear result
167 files (e.g. ISO image) are also saved into TSM.
168 If your favourite backup software is missing from this list, please
170 submit a patch or ask us to implement it for you.
171
173 To configure rear you have to edit the configuration files in
174 /etc/rear/. All *.conf files there are part of the configuration, but
175 only site.conf and local.conf are intended for the user configuration.
176 All other configuration files hold defaults for various distributions
177 and should not be changed.
178 In /etc/rear/templates there are also some template files which are
180 used by rear to create configuration files (mostly for the boot
181 environment). Modify the templates to adjust the information contained
182 in the emails produced by Rear. You can use these templates to prepend
183 your own configurations to the configuration files created by rear, for
184 example you can edit PXE_pxelinux.cfg to add some general pxelinux
185 configuration you use.
186 In almost all circumstances you have to configure two main settings and
188 their parameters: The backup method and the output method.
189 The backup method defines, how your data was saved and wether rear
191 should backup your data as part of the mkrescue process or wether you
192 use an external application, e.g. backup software to archive your data.
193 The output method defines how the rescue system is written to disk and
195 how you plan to boot the failed computer from the rescue system.
196 See the default configuration file /usr/share/rear/default.conf for an
198 overview of the possible methods and their options.
199 An example to use TSM for backup and ISO for output would be to add
201 these lines to /etc/rear/local.conf:
202 BACKUP=TSM
204 OUTPUT=ISO
205 And if all your systems use NTP for time synchronisation, you can also
207 add these lines to /etc/rear/site.conf
208 TIMESYNC=NTP
210 Don’t forget to distribute the site.conf to all your systems.
212 The resulting ISO image will be created in /tmp. You can now modify the
214 behaviour by copying the appropriate configuration variables from
215 default.conf to local.conf and changing them to suit your environment.
216
218 0
219 Successful program execution.
220 >0
222 Usage, syntax or execution errors. Check the /tmp/rear-hostname.log
223 file for more information.
224
226 To print out the current settings for BACKUP and OUTPUT methods and
227 some system information. This command can be used to see the supported
228 features for the given release and platform.
229 # rear dump
231 To create a new rescue environment. Do not forget to copy the resulting
233 rescue system away so that you can use it in the case of a system
234 failure.
235 # rear mkrescue
237
239 /usr/sbin/rear
240 The program itself.
241 /etc/rear/local.conf
243 System specific configuration can be set here.
244 /etc/rear/site.conf
246 Site specific configuration can be set here.
247 /tmp/rear-hostname.log
249 Rear log file.
250 /tmp/rear.####
252 Rear working directory. If Rear exits with an error, you must
253 remove this directory manually.
254 /usr/share/rear
256 Rear script components.
257 /usr/share/rear/conf/default.conf
259 Rear’s included defaults. Contains a complete set of parameters and
260 its explanation. Please do not edit or modify. Copy values to
261 local.conf or site.conf instead.
262
264 Feedback is welcome, please use the project page at:
265 http://rear.sourceforge.net/
266
268 Gratien D’haese, Schlomo Schapiro, Jeroen Hoekx and Dag Wieers.
269 Lars Pinne (this man page).
271
273 (c) 2006-2011
274 Schlomo Schapiro
276 Gratien D’haese, IT3 Consultants
278 Jeroen Hoekx
280 Dag Wieers, Dagit Linux Solutions
282 Relax and Recover comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; for details see
284 the GNU General Public License at http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html
285 7 Jun 2011 REAR(8)