On 6 Dec 2001 at 2:29pm, Ole Barnkob Kaas wrote

> How do people verify their backups? Are there some nifty scripts or
> tools available somewhere. Restoring 20GB+ of data just to find out that
> tar or dump has trashed some of the data is a tediuos task. Especially
> because you know you have to do it again when the problem is fixed to
> ensure that the data really is ok.

Well, there's amverify, but all it does is generate a table of contents 
from the tape images -- if that succeeds, the tape is marked OK. Note that 
there is no comparison of the TOC to index files or file system contents, 
so this isn't exactly the best.

> Checking the history of both tar and dump reveals so many issues that
> one has to wonder if it is ever possible to guarantee a safe backup on a

Dump has its issues, yes.  But a lot of people depend upon tar.

> linux box. Some cron task that could do a file to file compare or md5
> compare would really help me sleep at night.

Patches welcome.  ;)

-- 
Joshua Baker-LePain
Department of Biomedical Engineering
Duke University

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