On Wed, Jul 26, 2006 at 02:28:53PM +0200, Carsten Otte wrote: > Very interresting indeed. This pointed me to reading the > lockfs/unlockfs semantics in Linux, and I think I need to withdraw my > statement regarding flashcopy snapshots: because of the fact that > there is no lockfs/unlockfs interaction when doing flashcopy, and > because of dirty pages in the page cache during snapshot, flashcopy > will not generate a consistent snapshot. Therefore, using flashcopy on > an active volume from outside Linux is _not_ suitable for backup purposes. > > The only feasible way to get a consistent snapshot is to use > dm-snapshot from within Linux. This snapshot copy can later on be used > with a backup feature outside Linux.
If you use xfs you can also put the filesystem in frozen state from userspace with the xfs_freeze utility. I know of inhouse backup tools at various companies that make use of this feature. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For LINUX-390 subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: INFO LINUX-390 or visit http://www.marist.edu/htbin/wlvindex?LINUX-390
