On Tue, May 20, 2003 at 03:02:33PM +0100, Kevin Passey wrote:
> 
> I have lost a disk on my RH7.2 system and need to re-install the OS.

Sorry to hear that, its a pain.

> I have a full Amanda backup - are there any step by step guides to re-build
> a system from scratch - given that the tapes are good.

Very few backup systems could restore a system to a fresh disk.  For one
thing, few computers let you boot from the tape (hp is an exception I know).
And you need to do things like partition and build file systems and boot 
blocks...

> Or is it just a case of re-install RH re-build Amanda and run from there.

Conceivably, if you mean you lost something critical on the root file system
that prevents rebooting (someone did rm -rf /* for example :) AND you can boot
a working system from a cd (as you can from the Solaris installation CD's for
example) AND that minimal system includes the tape drivers and mt/dd/tar/gzip.
you might be able to do the recovery.

Otherwise I think you have to go the reinstall route.  Best thing is you
should be able to recover all the user data.  Good reason for keeping the
system stuff, the extra apps, and user stuff distinctly separate.  I would
make my / and /usr file systems read only after installation if I could.

> If the latter is the case would it cause a problem if I took this
> opportunity to upgrade to 2.44.

Shouldn't.  But once you get the OS reinstalled, you should be able to
recover your old amanda installation directory tree with the system tools.
Need one or two other files, like /etc/amandates.  But it is a good time
to update should you wish.

BTW I'm disappointed in my update from 2.4.2 -> 2.4.4.  It was so painless
that I have not looked at a single new feature except taperalgo.

One recommendation, after you get the OS reinstalled, restore to empty dirs
the backed up versions of the old installation to an empty disk space.
A while back I did a rebuild and followed this scheme.  Many was the time
I visited that tree to either copy a tweak I had done or refresh my memory
of how things WERE setup.  A lot easier done on disk than on tape.

-- 
Jon H. LaBadie                  jon AT jgcomp DOT com
 JG Computing
 4455 Province Line Road        (609) 252-0159
 Princeton, NJ  08540-4322      (609) 683-7220 (fax)