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ASTi Application Note 67: Backing Up and Restoring a Diskless Server Telestra
ASTi recently discovered that the backup and restore functionality provided by RMS does not completely restore the configuration of Diskless Clients on a Telestra used as a Diskless Server. This limitation is present in all Telestra releases at least up to 3.27-1. This function will be fixed in a future software release, but for now follow these manual procedures to get a complete reproduction of Diskless Server functionality.
If you are not using your Telestra as a Diskless Server, you can ignore this entire Application Note. If you are using the Diskless Server functionality, it is important that you perform these steps to make a complete backup so that you can recover from a hardware fault or a cold-start.
There are four steps required for this process:
  1. Creating the Backup
  2. Transferring the Backup to a Remote Machine
  3. Transferring the Backup from the Remote Machine to the Replacement/Cold-started Telestra
  4. Installing (Restoring) the Backup
In order to perform these steps, you must have a different machine which supports Secure File Transfer (SFTP) access, (e.g., another Telestra or Linux machine).
Note: These steps should be done in addition to performing the normal system backup and model backup procedures as described in the Telestra 3.0 User Guide. In other words, you should perform all other backups (as described in the User Guide) prior to step 1 and all other restorations prior to step 3.

1. Creating the Backup

Create the supplementary backup file by entering the following commands as the root user on the Diskless Server Telestra. 
cd /var/ftpd
tar cfz DisklessServer.tgz *

2. Transferring the Backup to a Remote Machine

To store the file on a remote machine enter: 
sftp <user>@<remote-ip-address>
Password: <supply user password>
put DisklessServer.tgz
quit

3. Transferring the Backup from the Remote Machine to the Replacement/Cold-started Telestra

To transfer the backup to a new Telestra enter the following commands as the root user on new (replacement or cold-started) Telestra. 
cd /var/ftpd
sftp <user>@<remote-ip-address>
Password: <supply user password>
get DisklessServer.tgz
quit

4. Installing (Restoring) the Backup

To restore Diskless Server configuration enter: 
tar xfz DisklessServer.tgz
reboot
The Telestra should now be able to perform the Diskless Server functionality just as it did prior to the cold-start.
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