[clug] Hoary old chestnut: Use of 'dump'

[Randall Crook]

--

Maybe I am a little out of it, but I usually use vdump (Tru64 with advfs)
to disk then tar the dumps to tape (yes I still prefer tape. :)) on
nightly cold backups (applications shutdown). Then once each 6 month
actually do a standalone backup (single user mode).

Now this works fine for me as I am dealing with 6 syncronised application
servers and losing one for a couple of hours each night is not a major
problem.

This does however ensure I have a clean backup of the important data
files. It also allows me to do standalone backups of one server as a
reference each time I need to perform major upgrades/patches so recovery
after a stuff up is relatively straight forward.

I have always wondered if the method i use is appropriate or the most
efficient (cost as well as reasouces) for the environment.

As each server is almost identical to the others (hostname, ip and a few
minor configs the only diffs between them) I usually just image a rebuild
off an existing server, so the backups to tape are really for absolute
desastar conditions and for the warm fuzzy feeling factor.

If anyone can point me to better (at no extra cost) solutions, I would be
very happy give them.:)

-- 

Regards,
Randall Crook

On Mon, July 25, 2005 15:19, Stephen Jenkin said:
> I was talking to a mate about backups & when he said he used 'dump', I
> trotted out the "it's got a design flaw" line.
>
> The real question was: How do I dump & restore with files on a remote
> host?
> A:
>      a) Use host:file or user at host:file syntax
>  AND b) set env. variable RSH to 'ssh' :-)
>
> Afterwards, I poked around a little on the Net and found:
> http://dump.sourceforge.net/isdumpdeprecated.html
>
> The authors of dump/restore say that backing up *any* live filesystem is
> fraught - not just 'dump' gets it wrong...
> And that Linus' post in May 2001 was about a specific bug in the 2.4
> kernel (since fixed).
>
> My question to the group:
>    Are the 'dump' authors still correct for ext2?
>    What about other popular filesystems, like reiserfs??
>
>
> cheers
> steve
>
>
> ---
> Steve Jenkin, Unix Sys Admin
> 0412 786 915 (+61 412 786 915)
> PO Box 48, Kippax ACT 2615, AUSTRALIA
>
> sjenkin at canb.auug.org.au http://www.tip.net.au/~sjenkin
>
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