Date: Fri, 16 Oct 2009 17:47:52 +0200 From: Polytropon <freebsd@edvax.de> To: Warren Block <wblock@wonkity.com> Cc: Jerry McAllister <jerrymc@msu.edu>, questions@freebsd.org, Nerius Landys <nlandys@gmail.com> Subject: Re: Best procedure for full backup of live system Message-ID: <20091016174752.14724f2a.freebsd@edvax.de> In-Reply-To: <alpine.BSF.2.00.0910152049340.80320@wonkity.com> References: <560f92640910142042tc46f1e3lb81ac1e4528a44ab@mail.gmail.com> <20091015143947.GB54613@gizmo.acns.msu.edu> <560f92640910151742h33393131j9974c23db37602b8@mail.gmail.com> <alpine.BSF.2.00.0910152049340.80320@wonkity.com>
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On Thu, 15 Oct 2009 21:47:57 -0600 (MDT), Warren Block <wblock@wonkity.com> wrote: > Just a general note: backup to a hard drive isn't bad, but it's not the > same as removable media. One failure can kill all of your backups... That's why it's often a good choice two have at least two hard disks (maybe external ones) for backup, so if one fails (which seems to be a problem of "modern" disks rather than older ones), there's still an intact backup on the other one (or on one of the others). > Backup in general is making copies of information > you won't need as long as you have a backup of it.a A wise summary. :-) > dump(8) doesn't do all sectors, just ones used by the filesystem. > > Also, dump doesn't cross filesystems. In a typical FreeBSD install, /, > /var, and /usr are separate filesystems. A dump of / won't get them all > at once. The dump utility is good when you want to work partition-wise. If you have a setting where everything goes into a big /, dumping it will get all data - from that partition. Slices and MBR are out of dump's scope. > > My server should boot fine with the FreeBSD CDROM (fixit), because it > > uses a subset of the GENERIC kernel device drivers. > > If you can, try that before an actual emergency. Furthermore, it's good to check backups regularly. A defective backup is NO backup. If data doesn't restore as intended (e. g. to a testing system), then...? A situation that many of you surely have come across, as I have: Operator: The hard disk crashed, we need to restore from backups. Customer: Of course I have backups! Here! Customer hands over three tapes. Operator starts restore with tape #1. Operator: First tape is through. Good. Next one. Computer displays rroor reading /dev/nsa0: Tape is defect, cannot read. Operator: Do you have other set of tapes? This #2 is defective. Customer: Yes! Tape #3! Operator: I need a working tape #2. Customer: BUT I *HAVE* BACKUPS!!! Testing the backups may take some time, I agree, but it's mostly worth it - it's worth as much as your data is to you. -- Polytropon Magdeburg, Germany Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0 Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...
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