general warning on Ultrix 4.2 (preinstalled)

[George Robbins]

In article <1991Jun14.092553.48104 at cc.usu.edu> slsw2 at cc.usu.edu writes:
> In article <123 at janis.UUCP>, ericw at janis.UUCP (Eric Wedaa) writes:
> > 
> > MORAL: Just as a side note, (word to the wise and all that...) is that after 
> > you get Ultrix (or any unix) up and running, IMMEDIATELY do a full backup.
> > No matter how slow a restore is, a full install is even slower!
> 
> I've never figured out how to make a bootable backup. Without that, you would
> have to do an install in this situation anyway.

You don't need a bootable backup, just a level 0 dump of your root filesystem
and backups of the rest in whatever formats you want.

You can boot the installation media at any time, and either select the
"maintenance option" or just abort the thing.

Then you go to /dev, MAKEDEV the disk and tape devices you need, chpt the
root parition (if non-standard) and restore your root.

After that, you can boot single user and proceed with the rest of your
recovery acts.  Older Berkely/Ultrix versions did installation by loading
a temporary filesystem into the "b" (swap) partition, Ultrix now uses
a memory-based filesystem instead.

I do a level 0 backup as the first file of my daily "incremental" backups,
it's small and only takes a few minutes.  If you have a farily volitle
evironment, it can be really painful to reconstuct changes to the password
file, hosts and similar files since the "last system backup".

-- 
George Robbins - now working for,     uucp:   {uunet|pyramid|rutgers}!cbmvax!grr
but no way officially representing:   domain: grr at cbmvax.commodore.com
Commodore, Engineering Department     phone:  215-431-9349 (only by moonlite)