[CentOS] Filesystem backup?

Mon Jun 22 14:42:45 UTC 2009
Robert Heller <heller at deepsoft.com>

At Mon, 22 Jun 2009 08:26:22 +0200 CentOS mailing list <centos at centos.org> wrote:

> 
> 
> 
> Could You please explain what exactly that line means:
> 
> # dump 0f - / | (cd /seconddisk; restore -rf -)

This does a full dump of the file system mounted as '/' and sends it
down a pipe to a shell process that first changes its working directory
to /seconddisk and then runs the restore program to restore the dump
coming on on stdin (from the other end of the pipe).

This does a disk-to-disk backup from / to /seconddisk.

Useful reading:

man dump
man restore
man bash

> 
> You are very helpful.
> 
> With regards,
> R.
> 
> 2009/6/21 Robert Heller <heller at deepsoft.com>
> 
> > At Sun, 21 Jun 2009 15:06:35 +0200 CentOS mailing list <centos at centos.org>
> > wrote:
> >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > I think about using dd instead of dump? Is this an acceptable idea?
> >
> > *NO!*.  dd is NOT a proper backup tool...  I don't know where the idea
> > that it is comes from (probably some really old UNIX sys admin book or
> > something). dd has many uses, but it is not normally considered a
> > backup tool.  Dump is a perfectly acceptable backup tool.  Dump was
> > *designed* as the backup tool of choice. And it works just fine on a
> > read-write file system, with the *standard* disclaimer that if used on
> > a file system that is 'active', it (*like all backup tools*) will miss
> > files that are being created/writen to during the backup.  Generally,
> > the missed files will be gotten on a later backup.  On a normal, typical
> > system, one would run the full backup at a 'quiet' time (a time frame
> > of low activity, with the idea of avoiding having the backup interfere
> > with normal activities and of normal activities interfering with the
> > backup. On a typical normal system, the missed files will likely be
> > things like the tail end of log files or various trasienent files (like
> > mail queue files and the like).
> >
> > If you want a non-live mirror on the second does do this:
> >
> > Pick a 'quiet' time (say on a quiet Sunday morning) and do this:
> >
> > (Assume that /dev/sdb1 is the sole partition on the second disk):
> >
> > # mkfs.ext3 -L SecondDisk /dev/sdb1
> > # mkdir /seconddisk
> > # mount -v -t ext3 LABEL=SecondDisk /seconddisk
> > # dump 0f - / | (cd /seconddisk; restore -rf -)
> >
> > At this point pick out a good book to read and get comfortable and read
> > a chapter or three or you can do whatever you would do to kill some time
> > -- ie go for a walk (or walk the dog), play a game of hoops or go for a
> > swim or whatever.  I am assuming that the disk is probably good sized,
> > so full dump may take some time.  You could stare at the screen for an
> > hour, if that floats your boat...  Dump will display a progress report
> > every 5 minutes.
> >
> > # umount -v /seconddisk
> >
> > Now create a script (Let's call it '/usr/local/sbin/dailybackup'):
> >
> >
> > #!/bin/sh
> > /sbin/e2fsck -C -T -a LABEL=SecondDisk
> > mount -v -t ext3 LABEL=SecondDisk /seconddisk
> > rsync -v -a -x -H --delete --delete-after --exclude=lost+found/ /
> > /seconddisk
> > umount -v /seconddisk
> >
> >
> >
> > # chmod +x /usr/local/sbin/dailybackup
> >
> > Now create a daily cron job:
> >
> > # crontab -e
> >
> > Add the line:
> >
> > 10 0 * * * /usr/local/sbin/dailybackup
> >
> >
> > And you are all set.  Once a day an 10 past midnight, the backup disk
> > will be sync'ed to the live system disk.  Every morning you will get a
> > message from cron with the output.
> >
> > If you really want to, you can change the '0' above to '0,6,12,18' and
> > the sync'ing will happen every 6 hours.  This is *probably* overkill.
> >
> >
> >
> > >
> > > 2009/6/21 Robert Heller <heller at deepsoft.com>
> > >
> > > > At Sun, 21 Jun 2009 11:49:09 +0200 CentOS mailing list <
> > centos at centos.org>
> > > > wrote:
> > > >
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > > Hi all. I'm currently having a following problem: I have only ssh
> > > > connection
> > > > > to a CentOS 5.2 system, there are two harddiscs on it. One stores the
> > > > system
> > > > > (/ filesystem) and the other should be used to help restore the
> > system in
> > > > > case of first disks' failure. I thought that maybe dump would be a
> > good
> > > > > utility to make it. But in only works on read-only filesystems. In
> > one
> > > >
> > > > Dump works just fine on a read-write file system.  There is the pretty
> > > > much standard limitation (that applies to *all* backup methods) that
> > > > when backing up an 'active' file system: there will always be files
> > that
> > > > will miss the backup because they were being written during the backup
> > > > process.
> > > >
> > > > > article I've read that making a snapshot of the / filesystem (then it
> > > > > wouldbe read-only) and backing it could help. But aren't snapshots
> > > > limited
> > > > > to logical volumes (LVM)?  My friend told me to use rsync to back up
> > the
> > > > > entire / filesystem to the second disk and then in case o failure the
> > > > system
> > > > > from the copy should boot ok.
> > > > >
> > > > > Could anyone provide any suggestions? I don't have physical contact
> > with
> > > > the
> > > > > machine so for example RAID 1 isn't a possible option/
> > > > >
> > > > > Any help will be very kindly appreciated.
> > > >
> > > > Make an initial dump to get the base system copied, then set up a cron
> > > > job to sync the disks once a day (or more frequently) with rsync.
> > > >
> > > > >
> > > > > With regards,
> > > > > R.
> > > > >
> > > > > MIME-Version: 1.0
> > > > >
> > > > > _______________________________________________
> > > > > CentOS mailing list
> > > > > CentOS at centos.org
> > > > > http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > >
> > > > --
> > > > Robert Heller             -- 978-544-6933
> > > > Deepwoods Software        -- Download the Model Railroad System
> > > > http://www.deepsoft.com/  -- Binaries for Linux and MS-Windows
> > > > heller at deepsoft.com       --
> > http://www.deepsoft.com/ModelRailroadSystem/
> > > >
> > > > _______________________________________________
> > > > CentOS mailing list
> > > > CentOS at centos.org
> > > > http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos
> > > >
> > >
> > > MIME-Version: 1.0
> > >
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > CentOS mailing list
> > > CentOS at centos.org
> > > http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos
> > >
> > >
> >
> > --
> > Robert Heller             -- 978-544-6933
> > Deepwoods Software        -- Download the Model Railroad System
> > http://www.deepsoft.com/  -- Binaries for Linux and MS-Windows
> > heller at deepsoft.com       -- http://www.deepsoft.com/ModelRailroadSystem/
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > CentOS mailing list
> > CentOS at centos.org
> > http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos
> >
> 
> MIME-Version: 1.0
> 
> _______________________________________________
> CentOS mailing list
> CentOS at centos.org
> http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos
> 
>                                                                                                        

-- 
Robert Heller             -- 978-544-6933
Deepwoods Software        -- Download the Model Railroad System
http://www.deepsoft.com/  -- Binaries for Linux and MS-Windows
heller at deepsoft.com       -- http://www.deepsoft.com/ModelRailroadSystem/