On 1 Aug 97 05:34pm, Malcolm Campbell wrote to Mike Bilow:
 MC> We recently had a catastophic hard drive failure that took out
 MC> SYS:
Ouch!  It does happen, though.
 MC> I was able to install a new drive, but had to create DOS
 MC> partition, load Netware 3.12, recreate SYS:, load on the first
 MC> 8 diskettes, then load the Cheyenne Arcserve software, before I
 MC> could do a backup from tape.
Creating the DOS partition, SYS: Volume and reloading the Backup
software is generally the minimum necessary to get back online.  I have
seen, however, some ads for backup solutions that don't require you to
do any of this but have never used one so am not familiar with the
backup procedures that allow such an easy reconstruction.
 MC> However!!! (and this is a big HOWEVER!!!) the backup, which
 MC> when made included everything on volume SYS:, did not restore
 MC> user names, groups, print queues and suchlike.
Sounds like your backup solution didn't include a backup of the Bindery
information or, if it did, you did not include the Bindery information
as part of the restore.  The Bindery is the flat database Netware 3.xx
uses to keep track of those items you lost.
 MC> What's the best way to backup the SYS so I keep all this
 MC> information? Can I clone the SYS: to another drive?
Well, (and I've done this when changing hardware) you *could* take an
identical size drive and mirror it with the existing drive.  This would
mirror the entire SYS: volume (and any other volumes if they exist on
the same drive).  Shut down the system upon completion of the mirror,
remove the drive, reboot and remount, then turn mirroring off again.
Take the mirrored drive and put it away for safe keeping.
This, of course, would only contain current information up to the time
the mirror was performed.  Any new data would not be included in the
mirror.
George
... Boys want to light bangers, but end up holding sparklers.
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