So I recently installed an Overland Arcvault 12 tape library on a server to back up /var/log/ and /home. The server is an out-of-box RHEL 5 install, with all packages selected, in an isolated lan, with no package updates. Also, this is a live server that cannot be brought down for backups, and some files may be actively in use during the dump - just gotta live with it.
Since I know EL5 and C5 are the same, and the level of support I get from RH is actually less effective and slower than resources such as this list, I'm looking here, first.
Up to this point I was backing up to a USB-mounted external 1 TB hard drive.
I was using a script containing:
/sbin/dump -0v -z2 -f /media/usb_drive/dump0 /home
I played with restore on that, and it tested fine.
For the tape, I thought it would be nice to add /var/log (should have done it before, but didn't think of it...)
Trying to adapt the knowledge to a tape library...
/sbin/dump -0 -v -z2 -f /dev/nst0 /var/log /sbin/dump -0u -v -z2 -f /dev/nst0 /home
I have a cron job that dumps the results to /var/log/dump.log, and a review of the log file claims all went well. Now for the restore...
I just tried playing with different options of restore, but could not successfully restore anything. I ensured I was in a scratch area so as to hopefully not overwrite current files.
What is the proper procedure for dumping and restoring now? Should I be dumping to /dev/nst0/dump? What restore commands would I use to recall a file?
I'd like to keep things as simple as possible - people have suggested legato and amanda, but for now, I would think/hope dump and restore would work.
Thanks.
Scott
On Fri, 28 Dec 2007 at 10:16am, Scott Ehrlich wrote
So I recently installed an Overland Arcvault 12 tape library on a server to
What kind of tape drive is in there?
I was using a script containing:
/sbin/dump -0v -z2 -f /media/usb_drive/dump0 /home
I played with restore on that, and it tested fine.
For the tape, I thought it would be nice to add /var/log (should have done it before, but didn't think of it...)
Is /var/log its own filesystem? dump/restore is designed to work on filesystems, not directories. IIRC (I haven't used dump/restore in a while), full dumps will work OK (with some complaining) but incrementals won't work at all.
Trying to adapt the knowledge to a tape library...
/sbin/dump -0 -v -z2 -f /dev/nst0 /var/log /sbin/dump -0u -v -z2 -f /dev/nst0 /home
Depending on what tape drive you have and whether or not hardware compression is enabled, you may want to lose the -z. You may want to anyway to save yourself the cycles.
I have a cron job that dumps the results to /var/log/dump.log, and a review of the log file claims all went well. Now for the restore...
I just tried playing with different options of restore, but could not successfully restore anything. I ensured I was in a scratch area so as to hopefully not overwrite current files.
Erm, what options did you try, and what were the results? Did you ensure the tape was positioned properly?
I'd like to keep things as simple as possible - people have suggested legato and amanda, but for now, I would think/hope dump and restore would work.
I'm a big fan and long-time user of amanda, but it's appropriateness here depends on your needs (which you haven't fully spelled out).
Joshua Baker-LePain wrote:
I'm a big fan and long-time user of amanda, but it's appropriateness here depends on your needs (which you haven't fully spelled out).
I'd have to concur. Dump has bitten me in the behind (uh....er....nevermind) a few times when I *really* needed it to work. :)
This doesn't solve your problem, but amanda isn't that hard to install if you have the option of trying an alternate tool to get your job done.
Best,
Scott Ehrlich wrote:
So I recently installed an Overland Arcvault 12 tape library on a server to back up /var/log/ and /home.
[...]
Trying to adapt the knowledge to a tape library...
/sbin/dump -0 -v -z2 -f /dev/nst0 /var/log /sbin/dump -0u -v -z2 -f /dev/nst0 /home
I have a cron job that dumps the results to /var/log/dump.log, and a review of the log file claims all went well. Now for the restore...
I just tried playing with different options of restore, but could not successfully restore anything. I ensured I was in a scratch area so as to hopefully not overwrite current files.
What is the proper procedure for dumping and restoring now? Should I be dumping to /dev/nst0/dump? What restore commands would I use to recall a file?
I'd like to keep things as simple as possible - people have suggested legato and amanda, but for now, I would think/hope dump and restore would work.
First you need to determine if your problem is with dump or the tape drive. Dump tends to be unhappy if the filesystem changes during the run, so you might be better off using tar. Also, some tape drives are picky about the block size used in writing and reading. You can use the mt command to check/set the block size for the tape, and both dump and tar have block size options that you can set to match.
On Dec 28, 2007 10:16 AM, Les Mikesell lesmikesell@gmail.com wrote:
drive. Dump tends to be unhappy if the filesystem changes during the run, so you might be better off using tar. Also, some tape drives are
Note what Linus has to say on the topic here: http://lwn.net/2001/0503/a/lt-dump.php3
Old post, still applies just as well today as it did then.
Jon Stanley wrote:
On Dec 28, 2007 10:16 AM, Les Mikesell lesmikesell@gmail.com wrote:
drive. Dump tends to be unhappy if the filesystem changes during the run, so you might be better off using tar. Also, some tape drives are
Note what Linus has to say on the topic here: http://lwn.net/2001/0503/a/lt-dump.php3
Old post, still applies just as well today as it did then.
And the rebuttal to Linus' view on dump/restore
http://dump.sourceforge.net/isdumpdeprecated.html
However keep in mind, dump will only work on a ext2 or ext3 filesystem.
To restore the filesystem you have a few methods, if you want to restore everything do the following:
cd /newfilesystem; restore rf /dev/{tapedevice}
Jeff
On Fri, 28 Dec 2007, Jeffrey Ross wrote:
Jon Stanley wrote:
On Dec 28, 2007 10:16 AM, Les Mikesell lesmikesell@gmail.com wrote:
drive. Dump tends to be unhappy if the filesystem changes during the run, so you might be better off using tar. Also, some tape drives are
Note what Linus has to say on the topic here: http://lwn.net/2001/0503/a/lt-dump.php3
Old post, still applies just as well today as it did then.
And the rebuttal to Linus' view on dump/restore
http://dump.sourceforge.net/isdumpdeprecated.html
However keep in mind, dump will only work on a ext2 or ext3 filesystem. To restore the filesystem you have a few methods, if you want to restore everything do the following:
cd /newfilesystem; restore rf /dev/{tapedevice}
Jeff _______________________________________________ CentOS mailing list CentOS@centos.org http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos
I tried tar, but it complained about some things, so I'm now looking at rsync. I want to back up to our Overland LTO3 tape library connected to the server via a SCSI card. One filesystem is /home, and the other is /var.
I'd want to create a full backup, with verbose output, and weekly incrementals.
Again, files may be in-use during backups - no databases in use at this time. I just have to live with the in-use files situation.
What would be the best rsync method to the local lto3 library (full magazine with 12 LTO3 400/800 GB tapes).
Thanks again.
Scott
Scott Ehrlich wrote:
I tried tar, but it complained about some things, so I'm now looking at rsync.
Tar is probably right to complain about some things. Try to understand them - they may or may not be important. Rsync is meant to copy disk-disk, perhaps over a network, but it isn't going to work with tape.
I want to back up to our Overland LTO3 tape library connected to the server via a SCSI card. One filesystem is /home, and the other is /var.
I'd want to create a full backup, with verbose output, and weekly incrementals.
Tar should work fine for this. You could automate with amanda or bacula, but for a single host it is probably easier to just schedule the tar commands.
Again, files may be in-use during backups - no databases in use at this time. I just have to live with the in-use files situation.
That's normally not a problem other than getting whatever state you happen to catch in an active file.
Scott Ehrlich wrote:
What would be the best rsync method to the local lto3 library (full magazine with 12 LTO3 400/800 GB tapes).
What I'd probably do is setup rsnapshot to make snapshots of the data that you want, and backup the snapshots(rsnapshot utilizes hard links so only changed files are copied). This way you can ensure the files being backed up to tape are not being altered.
As for sending the data to tape, my personal experience has been with BRU. It's not a free software package, the workstation version is a few hundred bucks. I'm sure there are other good backup packages out there, I've just been using BRU off and on for the past 8 years or so, since it's worked so well I've stuck to it. I can't speak for BRU server, back in 2001 they came out with the first version of BRU Pro, which was a fancied version of BRU, and it sucked hard. I use the original CLI version. Syntax is very similar to tar. Haven't used anything other than standalone single cartridge tape drives with it.
My next backup project I plan to purchase one of Quantum's new LTO 3A tape autoloaders, which is entirely IP-based, includes a built in FTP server, which I plan to use to send data to tape from multiple systems, no more tape backup software. For most of my production/work systems I snapshot the important volumes on my storage array (3PAR E200), and then back up the files on separate, dedicated systems.
nate
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Chris Mauritz -
Jeffrey Ross -
Jon Stanley -
Joshua Baker-LePain -
Les Mikesell -
nate -
Scott Ehrlich