On Sat, Dec 23, 2006 at 07:58:06PM +0100, Joachim Schipper wrote: > I interpret the above snippet to mean `dump works best on filesystems, > not files'. As to unmounting before dumping, that's possible but, IME, > not usually necessary. >
Thanks, I'll keep that in mind for when it is not practical, whatever that means at the time. > Of course, you *do* have to know what you are doing. Dumping a running > /usr is pretty much okay - it's not going to change, after all. On the > other hand, dump and PostgreSQL aren't friends (which is why pg_dump is > useful, this creates a backup in a file). > > My backups run at night, when very little things are using the machines; > but I do not unmount (or mount read-only) any filesystems before dumping > them. > > However, if you can get away with unmounting stuff, it might be > preferable. I just never bothered. > I've been shutting down postfix @ 4am, umounting /var/mail, dumping. Similar for /home with courier-imap, /var/www,.... I copy /etc, /root, crontabs, /usr/local/site, /var/spool/mailman,.... to /var/dumpster & dump that, then ftp the lot off site so there's no human input needed for tapes, CDs, wotnot. > > However, if you can get away with unmounting stuff, it might be > preferable. I just never bothered. > Ta, Merry Xmas if you're not working. -- Craig Skinner | http://www.kepax.co.uk | [EMAIL PROTECTED]
