[labnetwork] System backups

[P. Scott Harris]

  Hi ,

You might try another option which could be useful. If you have 'network boot' 
capabilities on the motherboard of the systems that you are using, or on the 
network interface card itself in older systems, then you might try the following:

- set up a PXE boot server somewhere. A windows machine running a tftp server 
(the free TFTPD32 would be an example) or some Linux distribution can be used 
for this
- look at using PXELINUX and creating bootable disk image files for each machine
- put the contents of the hard drives that need backing up on the PXE boot 
server as files that can be shared over the network

I have done this for DOS based systems and it is supposed to be possible with 
Windows based systems (a Google search seems to show lots of instances). It is a 
typical setup when trying to install operating systems on multiple machines from 
a single server.

What happens is that, upon booting, your machine looks to the network for a DHCP 
server. The DHCP server (TFTPD32 has this built in) provides a boot file image 
specific to the MAC address of the machine making the request. The machine 
creates a virtual disk from this boot file image and then boots from it. This 
virtual disk would also contain all the necessary network software to allow 
access to the server.

The upside is that all the files that would normally reside on the local machine 
can now reside on the network server and the local machine basically becomes a 
diskless workstation. Your local hard disk problems are eliminated. The network 
files can then be backed up in the usual way.

The downside (may depend on the local machine operating system) can be the work 
involved in getting networking to run on the local machine. Various versions of 
WIndows have better networking support that DOS so this may not necessarily be 
an issue. Hope this helps.

On 06/10/2010 3:30 PM, Keith Bradshaw wrote:
> We have 35 computers running systems in our clean room.
>
> Stuff like the Ellipsometer, PECVD,Etchers, SEM, three different RTA's, Furnaces.
>
> How do you back up and protect all these systems from a disk failure?
>
> We use WIN95, 98, and XP....whatever the manufacturers were using when they 
> wrote the operating software.
>
> cordially,
>
> Keith Bradshaw
> University of Texas at Dallas

-- 
Best regards,

P. Scott Harris, P.Eng.
H&L Associates
21 Parkmount Crescent
Nepean, Ontario K2H 5T3 Canada