Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!mips!pacbell.com!ucsd!nic.cerf.net!grumpy.sdsc.edu!benseb From: benseb@grumpy.sdsc.edu (Booker Bense) Newsgroups: comp.unix.admin Subject: Re: SUMMARY: Backup while in multi-user mode Message-ID: <405@nic.cerf.net> Date: 24 May 91 06:43:31 GMT References: <1991May24.013214.2526@servalan.uucp> Sender: news@nic.cerf.net Organization: San Diego Supercomputer Center @ UCSD Lines: 55 In article <1991May24.013214.2526@servalan.uucp> rmtodd@servalan.uucp (Richard Todd) writes: >peter@ficc.ferranti.com (Peter da Silva) writes: > >>What I don't understand is why people are still using "dump" to do backups? >>A pretty minimal script using "find -newer level-file" and "cpio" works just >>fine on active file systems. > [stuff about dump being better ] >-- >Richard Todd rmtodd@uokmax.ecn.uoknor.edu rmtodd@chinet.chi.il.us > rmtodd@servalan.uucp - Well, I've been wrestling with this problem for some time now. I sort of run things on a network that consists of 2 Ultrix Decstations, 3 VMS/vaxstations and some xterms. The VMS disks are visible from the decstation using UCX. We have one 1.2 gig DAT hanging off a Decstation and I am attempting to implement a reasonable backup stragety. -First you have to define why you are backing up. I have two goals in mind. 1. Disk crashes - Need to recreate enough of the environment to be useful. 2. Pilot Error - Backups for accidental deletion by users. - These two objectives have totally different goals and I have come to the conclusion that TWO different backup strageties are needed. - To implement the first I do ``dump''s of the major filesystems onces a month. I come in on a saturday and do this with no one on the machine. After this discussion , I'll do it single-user mode. - For the second I have set NFS up so root on the machine with the DAT can read any file on the network ( either VMS or Ultrix ). With various combinations of find and egrep -v I create a list of files from the ``user filesystems'' and use GNU tar to dump this list onto the end of a tar archive. This job is run by cron every night. GNU tar has enough flexiblity that I can get only the ``latest version'' of the file off the archive when neccessary. I also have utilities that will take care of converting VMS var. record length to Stream lf format. This has proven far more useful than the dump tapes and is relatively automatic. ( I only have to change tapes about once a month ). - The hard part has been convincing the kernal that the tape drive really was capable of 1.2 gigs. Many thanks to Don Rice in comp.unix.ultrix for the helpful advice. - Booker C. Bense prefered: benseb@grumpy.sdsc.edu "I think it's GOOD that everyone NeXT Mail: benseb@next.sdsc.edu becomes food " - Hobbes