You should backup the LRS configuration to easily set-up a new server in case of hardware failure, or before making changes to the server configuration.

The LRS backup / recovery can be found in the tab: Home -> configuration -> configuration backup.

Figure 13.1. Configuration Backup Page

In this page, a click on the "Backup" button, will create a .tar in /tftpboot/revoboot/backup, containing the most important LRS parameters. The "Restore the last configuration" button, will put the LRS in the state it was before the back up.

The archive contains system parameters, its network configuration, the Samba configuration, the Webmin configuration, and the contents of inventory and LSC databases.

So, if you have a tape back up of the '/tftpboot' directory, you can set-up a nearly identical server using the installation CDROM. To do so, you have to:

# LRS configuration file
# Comments (begin with #)
iface=eth0                 # Interface listening to the clients requests
hwmac=00:06:29:0D:22:66    # MAC address of the network adapter
license=100                # Number of licenses (number of clients)
key=EB92235ABD4C45C5       # License Key (depend of hwmac and license)

autoselect=no              # automatic update of the file header.lst
                           # if base/local images are created
skelsync  =no              # automatic update of the template
                           # if base/local images are created
# password
adminpass =linbox          # asked when adding a new client to the LRS

# paths
basedir   = /tftpboot/revoboot      # Base system directory
addscript = /tftpboot/revoboot/bin/create_config 

[dhcp]
nostaticip=1               # use dynamic dhcp addresses allocation

The "nostaticip=1" option means that IP address allocation is made dynamically by the DHCP server (external one or the LRS one).

If you use, LRS' DHCP server, you can set this option to "0" to have a "semi-static" address allocation.

	You should not use semi-static allocation.

If you enable this mode, you have to add the following parameters in the "dhcp" section of the lbs.conf file:

[dhcp]
nostaticip=0

#the following is only useful is static mode (nostaticip=0)
network=172.20.0
minip=240
maxip=254
tftpserver=172.20.0.123
filename=/tftpboot/revoboot/bin/revoboot.pxe
optionhostname=1
dhcpdrestart=1
    

With the above configuration, for every new client, the LRS will add a static IP allocation in the DHCP server's configuration, between the range 172.20.0.240 to 172.20.0.254 . Here, The LRS IP address is 172.20.0.123 .

This file which can be found under /etc or /etc/dhcp3, contains the DHCP server settings and should be modified with the Webmin module.

To sum up, the most important parameter for network booting is "filename" which must be set to "/tftpboot/revoboot/bin/revoboot.pxe".

These files can be found in each /tftpboot/revoboot/images/CLIENT_MAC_ADDR directory.

For groups and profiles, their menus are saved in the /tftpboot/revoboot/imgprofiles/profile name/group name/sub group/ directory or in /tftpboot/revoboot/imgprofiles/group name/sub group/ for groups with no profile assigned. For groups, only the header.lst file is significant.

[header]            -> Header
item=timeout 10     -> Options added in
item=color 7/1 15/3 -> the configuration file header
item=default DEFNUM -> for the timeout, the colors, the default menu
item=hiddenmenu     -> ...(see MACADDR options)

[menu1]                     -> Menu 1
def=yes                     -> Default menu : YES
visu=yes                    -> Displayed in the boot menu : YES
image=Local-Disk            -> Menu name : Local-Disk
include=Local-Disk/conf.txt -> Corresponding "conf.txt" file = Local-Disk/conf.txt

[menu...]
...

A portion of the client's boot configuration file is contained in conf.txt files (there is one in each directory corresponding to an image or a pseudo-image). MACADDR is the full configuration file, generated from all the "conf.txt" marked by "visu=yes" in the file "header.lst". This file is stored in /tftpboot/revoboot/cfg and is called MACADDR (i.e. hexadecimal MAC address). Thedefault file is similar to MACADDR, and it is used if MACADDR does not exist (e.g. during first boot). In those files, we can find the commands interpreted by the boot loader (basic Grub commands with LRS specific additions).

Example

timeout 10
color 7/1 15/3
default 0
hiddenmenu 

title Local hard disk -> conf.txt
desc Boot from local hard disk -> conf.txt
root (hd0) -> conf.txt
chainloader +1 -> conf.txt 

title ...
...

GRUB Notation. The disks are numbered starting at 0. The first hard disk (C: for DOS) is called (hd0). Please note that hd0 corresponds to the disk number 128 (0x80) in BIOS calls. The partitions are numbered starting at 0, and the notation "disk,partition" is used to access it. For example the D: partition or the second partition of the first hard disk, is (hd0,1). Other keywords:

The Grub Commands For a Configuration File. 

desc STRING     : Description line of the corresponding "title" entry. Displayed in the line
                  at the menu bottom generated by the "title" lines.
default INTEGER : Defines what is the "title" section that is selected by default (start at 0)
hiddenmenu      : "hidden menu" mode. To display the menu when in this mode, push
                  "Shift-Alt-Shift" during the "timeout" (see below) countdown.
title STRING    : Mark the beginning of the "title" section. The following commands
                  (not the comments and the descriptions) are executed when the entry is selected in
                  the menu. The string following "title" builds the menu.
timeout INTEGER : Defines the number of seconds to wait before
                  automatically executing the "default" menu entry

The Grub mini-shell commands

boot              : Implicit when a "title" section is finished, the "boot" command line can be
                    used to boot (after loading a bootsector with "chainloader"
                    or a kernel with "kernel").
cat FILE          : Display file content.
chainloader FILE  : Load the file as bootsector (often "+1").
color C1/C2 F1/F2 : Change the characters colors C1/C2 and the background colors F1/F2.
configfile FILE   : Load the file as configuration file.
debug             : Activate debug mode.
displaymem        : Display memory map.
fstest            : Filesystem test.
geometry DISK     : Display disk geometry (CHS, LRS, partitions...).
halt              : Power off the computer.
help COMMAND      : Display some help about a command.
hide PART         : Hide a partition.
kernel FILE PAR   : Load the file as kernel (ELF format) and give it the parameters PAR.
initrd FILE       : Load the file as initrd (ramdisk).
makeactive PART   : Activate the partition.
partnew PART TYPE BEGIN SIZE :
                    Create a new partition PART with type TYPE, beginning
at BEGIN with size SIZE.
parttype PART TYPE :
                    Set the type of the partition PART to TYPE.
pause             : Wait for a key to be pressed.
reboot            : reboot the machine.
root PART         : set the current root to PART.
unhide PART       : unhide a hidden partition (see "hide").

Grub network boot related commands

bootp           : get the network parameters (same as "dhcp").
dhcp            : get the network parameters (IP, NETMASK, GATEWAY, TFTP, FILENAME).
kernel FILE PAR : Load the file as kernel (ELF format) and give it the parameters PAR.
initrd FILE     : load the file as initrd (ramdisk).
rarp            : not implemented, replaced by "dhcp".
tftpserver IP   : Set TFTP server IP.

The LRS specific commands

diskclean DISK : Erase DISK (write zeros in all sectors).
geometry DISK  : Display disk geometry (CHS, LRS, partitions...).
identify       : Ask the computer name and an admin ID.
identifyauto   : Like identify, but automatically (name="+", ID="+").
                 If it is authorized in the DHCP settings, the name will be "IP" and
                 the station will be automatically added ("Cluster" behaviour).
inc BASE|COPY  : Increment and create a new BASE or LOCAL directory.
mbr FILE       : Write the FILE content on the current disk MBR (512 bytes maximum).
PARTCOPY PART BEGIN NETWORK_FILE :
                 Write the file IMAGE LRS "NETWORK_FILE" on the
                 PART partition which start at sector BEGIN.
                 Do not prefix with "(nd)", it is implicit.
ptabs DISK FILE: Write the file on the disk (specific LRS format,
                 to restore the partitions table and the MBR).
nosecurity     : Allow users to view and edit grub menu entries and to access
                 the grub command line.
kbdfr          : Load an AZERTY key map in grub (QWERTY by default)

CONF is the same as conf.txt, but in more concise format understood by the old CD booloader. We only use the "ptabs" and "partcopy" equivalents. Example:

D:128 L:20003760              -> Informative : disk 128, 20E6 sectors
R                             -> same as "ptabs PTABS"
P1 , S:63 , E:20003759 , t:12 -> same as "partcopy (x) 63 P1"
E                             -> mark the end of the file

PERL scripts are stored in the Webmin folder (usually /usr/share/webmin/lbs), and their configuration files are in /etc/webmin/lbs.

Since PERL scripts located in /tftpboot/revoboot/bin also use parts of the information that are stored in /etc/lbs.conf, and that they also use some of the functions provided by the library "lbs-lib.pl", there are links that are made between the Webmin module folder and the LRS binary folder (you might have to check this when installing or upgrading Webmin). Indeed, most of automatically possible actions (such as "identify") are also possible from within the Webmin interface.

getClientResponse

info

check_add_host MAC HOSTNAME PASSWORD

check_add_host_bulk PASSWORD <list.txt

create_config

check_ether

rename_host OLDNAME NEWNAME

wake MACADDRESS ... [MACADDRESS]

bzImage.initrd & initrd.gz

mbr.bin

memtest.bin

The Linux kernel used for backups and restorations can take into account a number of non-standard command line parameters: