The manual pages of dump(8) in my FreeBSD 5.3 system mention that it works with a snapshot (mksnap_ffs(8)) if asked to dump a live filesystem.
OpenBSD doesn't seem to have snapshots as such... So is dump safe to use when the system changes during its operation??? Anyway, I'm pretty happy about the responses! Thanks a lot. Stephan On 5/20/05, Simon Slater <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > It depends what you mean by a snapshot, I used > snapshot to mean an image of the system at a > particular point in time. This is a different type of > snapshot to the ones that are provided by the OpenBSD > people if that is what you mean, those are simply > tar'ed and gzip'ed file of the entire filesystem. > > Dump is what you use to make a backup of your system. > You could use dump to backup your system before you > make any changes and if there is a problem later you > can use restore to get the old version of your entire > system back. Dump is very simple to use and works at > the partition level instead of the file level. Given a > raw disk partition such as /dev/rwd0a it will read > through the contents of that partition and write this > into one large binary file including all filenames and > directories. The restore command can read this file > and re-create its contents back on to the disk. I > myself use this before I perform any major upgrades > just in case the upgrade fails. > > I hope this helps you > > - Simon > > > --- Stephan Wehner <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Does dump make use of file system snapshots if > > possible? Should one > > not work with a snapshot? > > > > Stephan > > > > Stephan > > On 5/20/05, Simon Slater <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > wrote: > > > Using cvs to back up the system is going to be > > very > > > inefficient, especially with binary files. I'd > > suggest > > > going with your idea of a system snapshot before > > any > > > major system changes. A straightforward dump(8) > > and > > > restore(8) is easy to set up and your backed up > > data > > > can also be restored just by booting from any > > OpenBSD > > > CD providing it is stored on a local disk. > > > > > > I run the following script from the cron every > > Sunday > > > night so that I can always restore back to a few > > days > > > ago if the worst happens. (The /scratch partition > > is a > > > separate disk to the rest of the system) > > > > > > Works well enough for me. > > > > > > - Simon > > > > > > --- BEGIN --- > > > > > > #!/bin/sh > > > > > > dump -af - /dev/wd0a | gzip > > > > /scratch/backup/root.dump.gz > > > dump -af - /dev/ccd0a | gzip > > > > /scratch/backup/usr.dump.gz > > > dump -af - /dev/ccd0b | gzip > > > > /scratch/backup/var.dump.gz > > > dump -af - /dev/ccd0d | gzip > > > > /scratch/backup/home.dump.gz > > > dump -af - /dev/ccd0g | gzip > > > > /scratch/backup/cvs.dump.gz > > > > > > disklabel wd0 > /scratch/backup/disklabel_wd0.txt > > > disklabel wd1 > /scratch/backup/disklabel_wd1.txt > > > disklabel ccd0 > > > /scratch/backup/disklabel_ccd0.txt > > > > > > cp /etc/ccd.conf /scratch/backup > > > > > > dd if=/dev/rwd0a of=/dev/rwd1a bs=16b seek=1 > > skip=1 > > > conv=noerror > > > fsck -y /dev/rwd1a > > > > > > --- END --- > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > --- Stephan Wehner <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > wrote: > > > > What am I trying to back up? > > > > > > > > What happened to me was I was running Mepis, and > > did > > > > an apt-get xfce4 > > > > (I think it was xfcr4). But then startx wouldn't > > > > work any longer. I > > > > thought apt-get would be pretty safe... > > > > Then I switched to FreeBSD and after a > > port-upgrade > > > > installed the new version of > > > > firefox. Then firefox wouldn't work any more. > > > > > > > > In both cases I had no clue what had changed, or > > how > > > > to undo it. > > > > > > > > Hence my original question. I think starting > > over > > > > with OpenBSD will be > > > > worth it. But I'm trying to decide on a good way > > to > > > > set up backups > > > > right from the start. > > > > > > > > Are you saying I should put the /usr and /etc > > > > directories and so on in > > > > a cvs repository? Will I get to know which files > > to > > > > checkout as I > > > > install more ports? Or instead of a cvs > > repository I > > > > thought of just > > > > taking snapshots before any system changes. But > > then > > > > I thought this > > > > should be a common problem so I asked how to go > > > > about it. > > > > > > > > Thanks > > > > > > > > Stephan > > > > > > > > On 5/19/05, Aaron Glenn <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > > > wrote: > > > > > On 5/19/05, Stephan Wehner > > > > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > > > What is recommended for bare-metal backups? > > > > Scenario: I build a new > > > > > > application, but something breaks and I want > > to > > > > revert back. I thought > > > > > > a neat way would be to have the whole system > > > > under version control. > > > > > > Can it be done reliably with one PC only? > > How do > > > > porters go about > > > > > > this? > > > > > > > > > > what do you expect to break? rcs works pretty > > well > > > > for system > > > > > configuration files. what are you trying to > > > > backup? > > > > > > > > > > aaron.glenn > > > > > > > > > > > > > > ----------------------------------------- > > > PGP Key ID: 0x4B1C0992 > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > ___________________________________________________________ > > > > > Does your mail provider give you FREE antivirus > > protection? > > > Get Yahoo! Mail http://uk.mail.yahoo.com > > > > > > > ----------------------------------------- > PGP Key ID: 0x4B1C0992 > > > > ___________________________________________________________ > How much free photo storage do you get? Store your holiday > snaps for FREE with Yahoo! Photos http://uk.photos.yahoo.com
