Backup using dump and restore from dvd - restore cd loaded to ram ?drive?

[John Nielsen]

On Monday 19 February 2007 10:29, Oliver Fromme wrote:
> knizek at volny.cz wrote:
>  > [...]
>  > The restore method will then require to boot from a bootable CD. The
>  > rescue CD system should load itself into RAM drive, so that I can
>  > dismount it and replace it with the CD/DVDs with the backup files.
>  >
>  > The rescue CD should provide basic commands and programs like mount*,
>  > newfs, bsdlabel, fdisk, vi, restore, gzip, ...
>  >
>  > I have tried the installation CD with FreeBSD 6.2, but its "holographic"
>  > shell does not have the commands needed and the FixIt shell depends
>  > on the CD.
>
> Building such a bootable CD is possible (I've done it),
> but it's not easy.
>
> Bascially you have to do it similar to the FreeBSD
> install CD.  I suggest you have a look at it.  What
> you have to do is prepare a kernel for the CD which
> has the MD_ROOT option, so it can use an "mfs image"
> as the root file system.  The create such an image
> and put it onto the cd.  On the FreeBSD install CD
> it is located in /boot/mfsroot.gz (you can uncompress
> it and then mount it via mdconfig).  Actually you
> should be able to make a bigger mfsroot image and
> add the tools that you need.  However, be aware that
> the image will eat up physical RAM, so don't be too
> wasteful.
>
> A simpler solution for your restore problem would be
> to simply use a standard FreeBSD installation CD,
> then make a minimal installation on your hard disk
> so you have all the tools that you need, then restore
> your actual backups.

There's a ready-made FreeBSD bootable CD called Frenzy that has an option to 
load itself into memory. I'd suggest getting the "lite" (smaller) version so 
the memory requirements aren't so great. Check it out:
	http://frenzy.org.ua/eng/
I've used it to do DVD operations under a "real" OS on a computer that wasn't 
running one (namely my wife's laptop). Works like a treat. I believe FreeSBIE 
is planning on adding such a feature as well but I don't think they have it 
yet.

JN