#719 Issue closed: [ Misunderstood ] backup from rescue stick not possible by design / prevent incompatible workflows in rescue mode

Labels: enhancement, support / question, fixed / solved / done

megabert opened issue at 2015-11-26 17:14:

Short

When I run through the quickstart, I create the rescue disk and boot a server i want to backup. In rescue mode, when I try to backup a system, I get the error:

Could not find "isolinux.bin". Maybe you have to set ISO_ISOLINUX_BIN....

Long

  1. I installed rear at debian 8 (At first 1.17.2 from git, then the deb package with same version, after that rear 1.16.1 as deb package, all the same outcome)
  2. I formatted an usb stick with rear -v format /dev/sdb
  3. I set up my local.conf(see below)
  4. I create my rescue stick rear -v mkrescue
  5. I booted rear ( using another hardware than the machine, where I created the stick )
  6. I pressed ctrl + c when dhclient was waiting (I have no dhcp-server here)
  7. I configured my network card manually with ifconfig and tested NFS-Connectivity
  8. I executed rear -v mkbackuponly (and mkbackup too)
  9. This error was shown: "Could not find 'isolinux.bin'. Maybe you have to set ISO_ISOLINUX_BIN [$ISO_ISOLINUX_BIN] or install the syslinux package ?" And other errors, after I commented out this check (mbr.bin, ... all of the stuff in /usr/share/rear/prep/USB/Linux-i386). After I disabled all the checks in the mentioned directory, no backup data files were created at all, when I looked at my NFS Share

local.conf

OUTPUT=USB
BACKUP=NETFS
# USB_DEVICE=/dev/disk/by-label/REAR-000  <---- this does not work (Fixed in 1.18)
OUTPUT_URL=usb:///dev/disk/by-label/REAR-000 
BACKUP_URL=nfs://storageserver.of.mine/temp/rear

gdha commented at 2015-11-26 17:33:

@megabert did you install extlinux - that is what you need to boot from an USB device?

schlomo commented at 2015-11-26 17:45:

You should run rear mkbackup instead of rear mkrescue. From within the rescue system you can only run rear recover.

And yes, It can be that ATM you need to install the package that provides isolinux.bin. We will fix this in the next release, IIRC.

megabert commented at 2015-11-26 17:48:

did you install extlinux

Yes.

You should run rear mkbackup instead of rear mkrescue. From within the rescue system you can > only run rear recover.

Ok. Seems I haven't got the full picture. I thought, i create a stick, and then I can walk to my servers and then boot & backup.

But wait. Backing up online is way cooler than I thought! :)

Thanks.

schlomo commented at 2015-11-26 17:49:

If that is the case, maybe rename the issue to rear "prevent incompatible workflows in rescue mode"

hazcod commented at 2015-12-01 15:08:

A bit of hijack perhaps, but can rear recover be executed automatically on boot?

Thank you.

schlomo commented at 2015-12-01 15:45:

Yes, hijack. See #686 for details:

ISO_DEFAULT=manual

And a pull request to the man page / web site is most welcome :-)

gdha commented at 2015-12-08 13:41:

@schlomo ISO_DEFAULT is already described in the man page.

[Export of Github issue for rear/rear.]