Date: Thu, 25 Mar 1999 22:51:25 -0800 From: David Greenman <dg@root.com> To: Evgeny Roubinchtein <eroubinc@u.washington.edu> Cc: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: "dump" of a "live" file system? Message-ID: <199903260651.WAA00675@implode.root.com> In-Reply-To: Your message of "Thu, 25 Mar 1999 21:10:42 PST." <Pine.A41.4.10.9903252056090.24046-100000@dante30.u.washington.edu>
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>Is it possible to "dump" a "live" file system? (i.e. dump a file system >when the machine is in multi-user mode, with the filesystem that is being >dumped mounted read-write). Is it safe/recommended? > >It seems like this wouldn't be a great idea, since on a "live" file system >mounted read-write there may be pending writes, and it isn't clear how >dump would cope with that. Is it better/ok/safe to first remount the >filesystem read-only? > >I think I am a bit confused on this. > >Please include my address in replys. You're right: dumping a live filesystem is a problem and may result in a dump that isn't usable. One solution is 'filesystem snapshots', which is something that Kirk McKusick has been working on. In an efficient way it creates a read-only, static snapshot of a filesystem state that you can then do a dump of. Pretty slick. It has other advantages too, primarily when combined with softupdates it lets the system do the fsck in the background after a system crash, thus dramatically reducing the system downtime. -DG David Greenman Co-founder/Principal Architect, The FreeBSD Project To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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