It was a fairly simple fix though - I had forgotten to add a couple of parameters into my rsyncd.conf file: something that became apparent after a cup of strong coffee and a ponder.
Once the rsyncd.conf file was corrected, I was able to start moving data between the backuppc server and my workstation with surprising rapidity.
The main problem I had was restoring my mySQL databases. I had used mysqlhotcopy to create backup copies of the databases on the system. It took a couple of attempts to get the databases working, but I got there in the end.
The process I followed was:
- log in to the mysql client and create the databases (create database {databasename})
- stop the mysql server
- when the databases have been created, copy the backed up files to /var/lib/mysql/{databasename}
- As I copied the files over as root, I then needed to call chown mysql:mysql /var/lib/mysql/{databasename}/*
- start the mysql server
- log into the mysql client and check the databases were OK - a couple of describes and selects does the trick. It's pretty obvious when there's a problem
- finally, test the web application(s) that use the databases.
As far as my website development projects were concerned, rather than use backuppc to restore them, I opted to use subversion to load them from the repository I set up last weekend.
So, apart from a couple of applications that I need to load and setting up rsync so it runs as a daemon, the system is fully functional.
My first impressions are of a system that loads really quickly. The new versions of OpenOffice.org now supports the latest .docx files, so it looks like it's fully compatible with the most recent versions of MS Office. That said, I haven't tried spreadsheets yet...
Overall, a good day's work. Time for another coffee and a surf to find out more about PHP development frameworks!
