Re: [Sheflug] NFS the hard way

[James Wallbank <nospam [at] lowtech.org>]

Hi Graham,

Yes, in theory I could take apart the server and copy across files. 
However, I'm reluctant to do that, because the server's meant to be 
an integral part of our Lowtech Video Wall (see 
http://www.lowtech.org/projects/ijmuiden/ for images) and it's the 
only one we've got! It's meant to be on public exhibition in a kinda 
high profile location (the Tate Gallery in London!) on Monday, and if 
I break it, we're truly b*****ed!

We've tried to duplicate its functions on a newer RedHat install, but 
we've only been partially successful. The bit that we can't get up & 
running is, ironically, the NFS server!

So that we can research the problem further, we need to duplicate the 
server as exactly as possible. The target machine (as with most of 
our Lowtech boxes) has an eth0, but no CD - nor does the server, 
which has two hd's, both running on the same ide controller. Thus it 
wouldn't just mean refitting one h/d, but two.

As you can see, the solution you propose is potentially possible, but 
would be quite risky. The NFS solution would be very neat - and risk 
free. It would also suggest all sorts of interesting backup and 
spawning methods for Linux installs - a bootable floppy with NFS 
server capability would be really, really handy.

Cheers,

James
=====

>Surely there's a much easier way to solve this, assuming you actually can do
>it. All you need to do is to take the hard drive out of the server and stick
>it in the machine your duplicating it to, and then mount it under that
>computer and copy it across. It would save all the hassle of NFS, as it's
>not being used, and it would also be a lot faster than copying the hard
>drive over a network link. This is, of course, assuming you can take the
>computers offline for long enough to do this.
>
>HTH
>--
>Graham
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "James Wallbank" <james [at] lowtech.org>
>To: "Sheflug" <sheflug [at] vuw.ac.nz>
>Sent: Thursday, February 22, 2001 1:00 PM
>Subject: [Sheflug] NFS the hard way
>
>
>>  Hi All,
>>
>>  How do I activate NFS the hard way - completely by hand?
>>
>>  Why??? Because I need to duplicate one of our servers, and if I boot
>>  it normally then everything goes pear-shaped, because when I mount it
>>  over NFS to copy the disk I can't copy loads of open files and active
>>  executables.
>>
>>  My solution? Boot the server (the machine to be duplicated) in single
>>  user mode so that the h/d has minimal activity. The problem then is
>>  that I need to get NFS up and running. I've used ifconfig to give the
>>  machine a meaningful IP address, netmask etc, and I've used route so
>>  that I can ping the target machine, which is sitting there with an
>>  empty hda1 ready to receive the data.
>>
>>  But, of course, when I try to mount my server's hda1 over nfs from
>>  the target machine, the whole process fails with an RPC port mapper
>>  failure.
>>
>>  Presumably this is because nfsd isn't running on the server (?)
>>
>>  When (on the server) I try...
>>
>>  rpc.nfsd
>>
>>  I get the message "Cannot register service: RPC unable to receive;
>>  errno = Connection refused."
>>
>>  What commands should I use to get nfs active on the server?
>>
>>  Cheers,
>>
>>  James
>>  =====
>>
>>  --
>>  who: James Wallbank
>>  org: Redundant Technology Initiative
>>  tel: +44 114 2495522
>>  fax: +44 114 2495533
>>  eml: rti [at] lowtech.org
>>  web: www.lowtech.org
>>  loc: Access Space
>>        1 Sidney Street
>>        Sheffield
>>        S1 4RG
>>        UK
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>>    GNU the choice of a complete generation.
>>
>>
>
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-- 
who: James Wallbank
org: Redundant Technology Initiative
tel: +44 114 2495522
fax: +44 114 2495533
eml: rti [at] lowtech.org
web: www.lowtech.org
loc: Access Space
      1 Sidney Street
      Sheffield
      S1 4RG
      UK
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