Linux Community Magazine

There are various techniques available in order to safeguard your valuable data, and disk mirroring is the most popular among them. It is the process of create an exact replica of all the data stored on your hard drive. You can easily convert your basic hard drive volumes to mirrored volumes, which replicates your data to prevent any sort of data loss situations. On Linux operating system-based computer, you can convert your linear logical hard drive volume to the mirror logical volume using 'lvconvert' utility. However, you should play safely while converting a Linux volume, as interruption to the process may cause hard drive failure and data loss situations. At this point of time, you need to opt for Linux data recovery solutions to get your precious data back.

The lvconvert is an inbuilt utility of Linux operating system that enables you to change a linear Linux hard drive volume to mirror logical volume. You can also use this utility to remove or add disk logs from the mirror devices. The command line utility supports various options or parameters to perform specific task. Some of the most common parameters of this utility are as given below:

-m, --mirrors Mirrors- This option specifies degree of mirror that you want to create. For instance, '-m 1' converts original Linux volume to mirror logical volume with one linear volume and one copy.

--corelog- This parameter tells the tool to switch mirror from employing a persistent (disk-based) log to in-memory log. It is possible only if --mirror argument is of same degree of mirror that you are modifying.

-R, --regionsize MirrorLogRegionSize- It divides the mirror into various regions of defined size in MB (megabyte).

-s, --snapshot- It creates the snapshot from an existing Linux volume using another volume with same origin.

-Z, --zero y/n- This option controls zeroing of first KB of information in snapshot. The snapshot is not zeroed if volume is set to read-only.

Before you convert the volume, you must backup all your significant information. If the process fails, you can not access Linux hard drive volume and stored data and need of data recovery Linux arises. Linux recovery is best possible using advanced and powerful third-party applications. Linux data recovery applications ensure safe and easy recovery in all data loss situations, with read-only conduct and rich graphical user interface.

Stellar Phoenix Linux data recovery software recovers lost data from lost, deleted, corrupt, or inaccessible hard drive volumes. The software supports recovery from Ext4, Ext3, Ext2, FAT32, FAT16, and FAT12 file system volumes. It works well with all major distributions of Linux operating system, including Red Hat, SUSE, Debian, Fedora, and more.

A Linux file system is a collection of various files and folders, which is stored in a separate disk partition. The entire disk partition is divided into various file system blocks, which are used for storing either the user data or the metadata. The metadata can be referred as the repository that contains the information of the file system. One such metadata structure is the superblock, which is very essential for the health of the Linux system. A file system cannot be mounted if you are not able to access the superblock. This case arises if the superblock is corrupted that can happen because of various reasons such as virus infections, power outages, file system corruption, human errors, etc. In such cases, you should take appropriate corrective measures to recover the file system. If you are not able to resolve the issue, then you should use a third-party Linux data recovery software to perform data recovery of Linux system.

Consider a scenario wherein you have an ext3-partitioned Linux system. When you try to access the partition, you are not able to do so. An error message is displayed, that is:

"/dev/sda2: Input/output error

mount: /dev/sda2: can't read superblock"

Cause:

The cause of this error message is that the superblock has corrupted because of the aforementioned reasons.

Resolution:

You can restore the primary superblock from the various backup copies that the Linux system maintains for such situations. To do this, you need to perform the following steps:

Find out superblock location for /dev/sda2

Check and repair the Linux file system using alternate superblock # xyz, where xyz is the location of the alternate superblock.

Mount file system using mount command viz, # mount /dev/sda2 /mnt

Try to browse and access the file system.

However, if you still are unable to address the situation, then you should use a third-party Linux data recovery software to perform Linux recovery. Such tools are read-only in nature and perform Ext3 Recovery without overwriting the original data.

Stellar Phoenix Linux Data Recovery software is a Data Recovery for Linux software that enables you to perform Linux data recovery for various file system volumes. Apart from ext3 recovery, it is capable of performing Ext2 Recovery and ext4 recovery. In addition, this Linux recovery tool recovers data from various types of hard drives such as SCSI, SATA, EIDE, and IDE. It supports different Linux distributions such as Red Hat, SUSE, Debian, Caldera, Mandrake, Sorcerer, TurboLinux, Slackware, Gentoo, etc. It is compatible with Windows 7, Vista, Server 2003, XP, and Server 2000.

Linux is one of the most stable operating system in industry. Being open source it is free to use and deploy on large enterprise level.

Following are some important and useful features of Linux.

Cost Effective Solution:

One of the biggest advantages of Linux is its cost effectiveness. As an open source product, you don't have to pay high license fee to run your on-line venture.

Choosing a Linux web hosting can set you free from worries of high cost.

Stability:

Linux is most stable operating system, it offers durability and stability. Web hosting servers running Linux stay on line for months or upto year without rebooting the machines.

With Linux web hosting you are more secure and stable in technology.

Support:

As linux is widely used on web, it has strong community and support mechanism to make it stable and long lasting.There are many experts out there to help you out in case of any trouble. Furthermore, it is highly customizable, you can customize the kernel of linux according to your own needs.

Light Weight:

Linux is a light weight operating system, which means you can use hardware more efficiently than any other operating system.Linux uses less resources to save your hardware cost.

Linux in Web hosting:

May web hosting are running Linux based servers to entertain their customers. Many mega projects are using open source tools using Linux as primary interface.i.e twitter, facebook, google etc.

Mostly startups and small business are using open source technology to multiply their profit. They are not saving the cost only, but they are experiencing the quality with affordability.

Normally, a Linux web hosting package will cost you from $3 to $9 depending on hosting provider and package features.

The big web hosts running Linux on their servers are Hostgator, Bluehost, Arvixe and Site5 etc.

Linux server monitoring techniques ensures the health of your business entity and server. With the latest technological advancements, Linux is continuously at your service, 24/7 around the clock.

Linux server management is the latest offering of several dedicated web server organizations as it is one of the best methods that ensures more secured database than other management services. Linux is one the most prominent brands in web server operating systems and its reliable monitoring techniques ensure that your server never crashes and runs smoothly always. Linux's famous LAMP server and software combination system has achieved great recognition amongst the biggest web hosting companies as one the best web hosting platforms. Today, Linux server monitoring has established itself as one of the best ways to ensure the performance of your system and server functioning.

Linux server monitoring utilizes a proactive approach. Their management technique guarantees that your clients are never left wanting and their technical knowledge helps in providing top quality support to your end-users and clients. Security and safety of your clients is also guaranteed by utilizing the latest technological features and applications. The Linux monitoring software products checks the performance of your system and the other computers in your organization regularly to ensure the health of your business organization.

Linux server monitoring is available around the clock 24/7 and this adds value to the proper functioning of your entire network. Web hosting companies need round-the-clock service and this is guaranteed by the Linux management. Your software and hardware components would be working properly only if they are monitored regularly, and any slip would imply huge losses to your company. To prevent any untoward incident from disrupting your business or affecting your clients you must always opt for Linux server monitoring services. These techniques also ensures that your server never hangs or crashes, thereby protecting your important data and applications.

Linux server monitoring is also one of the leading firewalls that protects your important data from unauthorized connections. Today, servers are seriously affected by malicious software and viruses, which automatically gets installed in your server and creates havoc in your system. The monitoring service of Linux also guarantees protection to your system from spam and antivirus as it has the best equipments to handle such situations. Your computer software and hardware are regularly tested for their stress capacities and they are regularly updated to ensure that your system is capable of handling massive workload. All these features provide wonderful results that ensure that your web server is up to date with the latest technological advancements and capable of adapting to the rapid changes.

Your server contains massive data, which is continuously being used by your clients, so maintaining the health of your system is of utmost importance. Without monitoring of your server it may break down at any given point of time disrupting your data transfer, video and text communications and also the web hosting capacity of your server. Linux server monitoring comes in handy in such situations as it is constantly on the lookout for errors in your system. Security threats or any sort of invasion by unauthorized applications are easily dealt with by employing the latest techniques to ensure that your network is free flowing all the time. For all these reasons Linux server monitoring is the best way for you to handle your server and system without wasting too much precious business time in such complexities.

Among the tech geeks, Linux operating system based computers are considered more robust and safe in terms of data security, as the Linux versions are more often updated with technology changes. Moreover, their frequent upgradation, keeps them comparatively free from virus/ malware intrusion. These are the few points backing the LINUX systems against some of the usual problems and thereby loosing valuable data. However, hard drive of a Linux based computer, the major physical component that stores the data, can go wrong to take down significant amount of data with it. Such situation demands techniques, such as LINUX recovery or LINUX hard drive recovery to recover back your valuable data from the troubled drive.

Components inside a hard drive & why it fails:

A hard disk consists of several mechanical and electromechanical components, such as head, platter, motor, PCB etc. Be it a mechanical failure, electronic failure, firmware failure or any logical failure, if your hard drive fails due to any of the reasons, the data contained in it becomes inaccessible. In a number of occasions, the hard drive doesn't have any physical problem and due to some logical problem, such as virus/malware infection, formatting, file system corruption or operating system malfunction, the data in the drive remains unavailable.

Do s & Don't s regarding hard drive recovery:

Never try to open your damaged LINUX drive under any instance of data loss. Furthermore, never try coping new files, fragmenting etc, as the data inside the disk may get overwritten and hence, will go beyond the scope of recovery. Moreover, remember that, the data in the drive is never permanently lost and it can be safely recovered by the help of Linux hard drive recovery technology.

Advanced operating systems like Linux have inbuilt commands that can detect and repair errors to make your hard drive into working condition. 'fsck' is such a command, which helps to scan the LINUX drive for any possible corruption or damage and repair the same in order to recover the data. However, if the command fails, you have to restore your data from the updated backup, failing to which only one option is left to recover your invaluable data, that is to run a Linux recovery software.These Linux recovery software are well advanced in their mechanism to dig into your troubled LINUX hard disk and recover your data irrespective of the hard disk type, make or model. Moreover, the operation is so simple that you needn't have to worry a little.