Hello all-

Since I'd used mkCDrec in the distant past, I chose to use it for a customer of mine in the UK. But it's misbehaving as follows, but not every time!

My goal is to make a CD set, or preferably a DVD, which can be used to rebuild a Linux server from bare metal. The server is an IBM x3650 M2.

mkCDrec goes through all the motions of creating an ISO set which I can later burn to disk, but about 90% of the time it gets stuck in the section where it's using gzip to create the giant backup file:

gzip -9cv < /dev/mapper/(my disk) | dd bs=512 | cutstream

(note that cutstream is a program included with mkCDrec to break a giant file into files of a size not exceeding xx bytes)

Anyway, my disk is mostly empty, only about 3.5GB total.

Once every 8 or 9 times, everything works great and creates about 4 CD images, and all is well. But most of the time, the gzip (above) goes on and on, creating ISO image after image, until I kill it.

Has anyone experienced this problem? Are there other bare metal backup solutions available (besides MondoRescue, which has a separate issue)

Many thanks

I use DAR with good results for my backups. You can read the tutorial here.