Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!snorkelwacker!bloom-beacon!eru!hagbard!sunic!comsys!smith
From: smith@compound.se (Bj|rn Smith)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.xenix.sco
Subject: How to backup safely ?
Keywords: backup
Message-ID: <244@comsys.UUCP>
Date: 3 Oct 90 07:30:56 GMT
Reply-To: smith@compound.se (Bj|rn Smith)
Organization: Compound Systems
Lines: 26
UUCP-Path: sunic!comsys!smith


At the moment we are backing up our two filesystem /root and /u once
every month using "backup 0...". Besides that we have a streamer tape
permanently inseted performing automatic delta backups of the /u file
system every night by doing "backup 9...".

What happens is any of the tapes Im using is damage ?
I suppose "backup" wont discover that. Can I perform a "restore" to
/dev/null immediately after backup just to ensure that the tape is correct ?
Does "restore" returns any exit code if there is some kind of checksum
error in a tape block ?

Same worries about the disk surface. Will "backup" return any exit code if
it finds a bad spot on the disk ?

Should one perform a fsck before backup ?

How should one do this in a safe way ?


Thanks in advance for any advice !

--
Bj|rn Smith	Compound Systems, phone +46 8 7923689
UUCP:	 	{uunet,mcsun}!sunic!comsys!smith
Internet:	smith@compound.se