I would like some guidance on where best to place my efforts on getting a Red Hat server communicating with my existing Bacula system.

In 2012 I built Bacula 5.2.12 from source on CentOS 6.3. I've been using it for backup of a Windows 2008 R2 PC. I also want to use it to backup a Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server release 5.3. That Red Hat server had some problems that prevented yum from working. I worked with Red Hat support to get yum working. I though that would help me install Bacula-client. When I type:
# yum install bacula-client
I get:
No package bacula-client available.

Looks like I need to learn a bunch more. Should I go in the direction of trying to figure out how to use yum on Red Hat to get Bacula installed from some repository, or should I try to figure out how to use the build I made to create something that I could use on the Red Hat system?

Thanks.

RHEL 5.3 is going to have issues with yum

5.11 is current but 5.3 is 8 minor versions and 4 + years out of date

and if this is Cent5.3
it is LONG dead and way past it's End Of Life

UPGRADE to the current older rhel5 rhel 5.11

contact redhat support
you MUST have a up to date support contract
if you do
will do it

but be prepared skipping 8 minor versions might bust the system
so talk to your PAID FOR redhat tech support

1 members found this post helpful.

Before I upgrade/update Red Hat, I do want to get a full backup. I inherited this precarious, unmaintained system. I am charged with saving it. I was hoping to back it up with Bacula before I start making modifications, or something breaks. What backup method would you use on an old Red Hat 5.3? My paid for support contract is "Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server Entry Level, Self-support." I'm particularly interested in a way to back this up that would allow me to virtualize it, but first I need the most reliable way to back this up. I thought installing a Bacula file daemon was suppose to be straight forward and low risk. What methods do you suggest for my first full backup? I have nothing so far.

i would NOT expect the current bacula 7.05 to build on rhel5

the 5.2.12 version of bacula from 2012
http://sourceforge.net/projects/bacu...bacula/5.2.12/

should build on RHEL5
even if it is at the old 5.3

you have a rhn access to the old 5.3 repo and last update repo for 5.3
( i take it redhat support had you manually edit the files in "yum.repo.d/" )


what version of gcc is installed ?
4.1 should be fine for 3 year old software

then read the README and INSTALL in the "bacula-5.2.12/" folder
you have a LOT of settings that NEED to be set at build time

the "README" REALLY states and i mean they REALLY WANT you to READ THE MANUAL
"RTFM" is not a joke here
http://blog.bacula.org/documentation/documentation/

there is a rpm on "rpmpbone"
32 bit
http://rpm.pbone.net/index.php3/stat....i386.rpm.html
might work

64 bit
http://rpm.pbone.net/index.php3/stat...86_64.rpm.html

these expect rhel5.11 not 5.3
but they might run

1 members found this post helpful.

If you're going to upgrade, then I'd strongly suggest loading the LATEST version (7.x) of RHEL. You're going to have to do a fresh install anyway, and there's not much point in going through all that, only to wind up with a system that's old and going to hit EOL in a short time anyway. 7.x gives you some breathing space.

That said, you need to identify what that server is running...specifically, the services. All you really need to back up is their configuration files, so reloading them on a new server (with updated software) is easy. If you have users with data, then back up their home directories, and COPY the /etc/passwd file to a different name/location for backup. That way, you'll have the users names with associated home directories and can merge them in to the new system. Since you're essentially talking about a data-migration, you can use a simple tar command to shovel it all somewhere else...even an external USB drive, if need be. Also, do yourself a favor, and format your drives when doing the installation, and use a newer file system that's faster, and give your new system every advantage that comes from being new.

After you're doing and have the system back online, copy your data back...install bacula from there, and enjoy.

1 members found this post helpful.

Thanks for all the advice.
John VV: you are right: gcc is version 4.1.2, and support did have me manually editing things to get yum working again. Sounds like I should use the gcc to build a Bacula on RHEL if I want to go that route.
TB0ne: Sounds like I can use tar for now and install Bacula later if I go the route of a fresh install of RHEL 7.x.

Either way, a tar backup seems like a good simple start. I have a ReadyNAS with a few free TBs that I could use for backup. I looked at tdlp.org Linux Complete Backup and Recovery HOWTO, but it seems kind of old. It refers to books from last century and talks about ZIP drives. I'm hunting for a good guide that I could follow to make a backup that I could use for disaster recovery. There's probably an optimal way to make this tar backup. Any suggestions?


================ physical details ===============
Here are my disks:
# df -h
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/mapper/VolGroup00-LogVol00
394G 246G 129G 66% /
/dev/sda1 99M 25M 69M 27% /boot
tmpfs 16G 3.4M 16G 1% /dev/shm
/dev/md0 1.8T 1.7T 97G 95% /u
/dev/sdd1 1.8T 1.8T 0 100% /mnt/b1


The hardware is a Dell Precision T7400 with a RAID 5. Electrical engineers use it to run Mentor Graphics software for electronics design for an embedded system.