server rebuilds and disaster recovery

[Kevin Kinsey]

Philip Hallstrom wrote:
>> this weekend, im going to have to rebuild my 6.0 server in order to
>> recover from a faulty disk (i have to eliminate a RAID1 array, and break
>> rebuild the RAID5 with one more disk).
>>
>> all my daemons and whatnot, im pretty good at recovering.  sendmail,
>> apache, mysql, etc, shouldnt be a problem.
>>
>> what i think i need help with is, what is the best way to recover my
>> previous system's user accounts?  this time around my server is going to
>> go from piece-by-piece updates, to a full buildworld before i build all
>> the daemons.
>>
>> can someone recommend a good way to recover my users, or dissertate how
>> they go about doing it successfully?  also, any tips outside of users 
>> that
>> you think i might benefit from in a rebuild/redeploy, would also be
>> appreciated!
> 
> 
> Maybe I'm not fully understanding, but why wouldn't you just backup 
> /etc/passwd (and all it's related master and db files), etc/group, heck, 
> /etc/ in general, then everyone's home directories, /var/cron/tabs and 
> /var/mail (or wherever you store their inbox)
> 
> ??


and then restore them to the new boxen and run pwd_mkdb(8),
of course ....

And then the real question.  If this box is currently functioning and 
all filesystems are intact, what's wrong with dump(8) and restore(8)?

Kevin Kinsey

-- 
An atom-blaster is a good weapon, but it can point both ways.
		-- Isaac Asimov