Additional Recovery Scenarios

Bacula Enterprise Only

This solution is only available for Bacula Enterprise. For subscription inquiries, please reach out to sales@baculasystems.com.

Restoring a system with SELinux enabled

The BMR program can restore SELinux enabled systems. By default, the program creates the file /.autorelabel and lets the system reset all SELinux attributes at first reboot. The system often reboots a second time after the reset of the attributes.

Unfortunately, for unknown reasons this procedure doesn’t work anymore with some recent Linux distributions when the enforcing mode is used. The workaround is to switch the mode to permissive just after the restore using the combobox in figure Boot Loader Manual Configuration, and let the system reset the attributes.

When the system is rebooted for the second time, the administrator has to login and edit the file /etc/syslinux/selinux to change the SELinux mode back to enforcing before rebooting one final time.

If you have problems at reboot time and you know that the SELinux mode is set to enforcing, then try to lower the mode to permissive as described above.

The BMR program detects this situation for RHEL 8 and automatically lowers the SELinux mode to permissive while configuring the BOOT and warns you in the log displayed just before reboot. In any case, a warning is displayed when SELinux mode was set to enforcing on the source system to get your attention about this problem.

The problem is known to show up also on Debian 10 but it is not yet handled by the BMR program, this up to you to change the SELinux mode in the dialog box, and follow the procedure.

Restoring a system with multipath enabled

LinuxBMR has supported Multipath since version 2.3.0. Backup and restore of RHEL 8 & 9 servers can be performed on both Singlepath and Multipath machines. However, other Linux distributions can only be backed up and restored on SinglePath machines. A list of supported Linux distributions will be provided subsequently. .. when?

When restoring on a Multipath setup, LinuxBMR does not configure or display any multipath devices; it only presents a single path while concealing the others. Prior to the creation of partitions, logical volumes and filesystems, LinuxBMR deletes the hidden device aliases to avoid any confusion and allows LVM and associated tools update the boot system. Additionally, LinuxBMR compels the Linux distribution to incorporate the multipath modules when regenerating the initramfs. It also updates /etc/multipath/bindings to ensure consistent naming.

In contrast, when restoring on a Singlepath setup, LinuxBMR operates as usual, renaming devices as necessary without enforcing any multipath modules.

In both scenarios, the file /etc/lvm/devices/system.devices is not restored to its original location, instead, it is renamed with a .linuxbmr extension due to containing outdated LVM UUID information that is no longer valid. To recreate the file, use the command: lvmdevices –update.