On Tue, 23 Oct 2001, Donald Brandon wrote:
> Hey all:
>
> Doing my first back up on a new linux machine and ran into a problem.
> My question is this..... Is it necessary to back up the proc filesystem
> when doing a "full" backup? At first I tried a backup using dump
>
> dump -0uf - /dev/sdb1 | gzip --fast -c >> /dev/nst0
>
> I did that for all directories under /. I don't know why I originally
> chose this method. I guess because of the extra information it holds for
> you. ??? Anyways, when I tried to access the tape, using restore -if
> /dev/nst0, it wouldn't read. I even tried to unzip first and still had
> no luck. I said the heck with that, I should have used tar from the
> start. Guess what?? Trying
>
> tar cvf - / > /dev/nst0
>
> ended much later with : 'tar: ended with previous errors' or something
> like that. During that time I noticed that proc/kcore was being padded
> with zeroes (which took forever)....
>
> On a new tape, I went through and backed up each file system under /
> with no errrors. I have done all but proc. The proc filesystem is
> created by the kernel at boot, correct? Since it seems this is where my
> error was coming from, do I really need to include it in the backup?
> Some clarification would be greatly appreciated.
>
> Thanks in advance,
> DB
>
No, it is not necessary, or even desirable to back up /proc. I am not
sure what you were trying with your first dump command, as it doesn't
realy make sence to me. I can understand everyting except the /dev/sdb1
in your command. You normaly want a to use the mount point of a mounted
file system to dump, and not a device. Something like
"dump -0uf - / | gzip --fast -c > /dev/nst0". I do not realy advise
running it through gzip, but if you want to, that is up to you. When
you restore, you have to run the output through gzip before running it
through restore. To see what is on the tape try something like this:
mt -f /dev/st0 rewind
zcat /dev/nst0 | restore -Nf -
Note: I have not tested this, so it may not work.
The mt command is to rewind that tape, as you were using the
non-rewinding interface. zcat is to uncompress the archive on the tape.
When using this method, you are limmited to what will fit on one tape.
Using dump without piping it through gzip will let you have multi-tape
backups.
If you are going to use tar, you should look at the -l option, or set up
an exclude file list and use the -X option.
Mikkel
--
Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons,
for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup.
_______________________________________________
Seawolf-list mailing list
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
https://listman.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/seawolf-list
