On Sunday 16 November 2008, Alan McKinnon wrote: > On Sunday 16 November 2008 02:08:42 Mick wrote: > > On Saturday 15 November 2008, Dale wrote: > > > Mick wrote: > > > > Without gentoo-wiki my knowledge level is rather poor (just like my > > > > memory!) > > > > > > > > What would you use to back up a running server without taking it off > > > > line? > > > > > > I keep mine simple, cp -auv paths/you/want/to/backup back/up/to It has > > > works so far. Thought about doing a cron job but that complicates > > > things. :/ > > > > Thank you all for the suggestions and for the link to the wiki! I've got > > some reading to do. ;-) > > > > Whenever I have used tar to back up a whole OS I used it with a LiveCD. > > This was to make sure that files and their metadata were not being > > changed while I was tar'ing them. > > > > Are you saying that I can actually fire up tar/rsync and back up in real > > time? > > Yes. Unix does some RealSmartThings(tm) when using files. The name is just > a pointer to the actual file, represented by an inode. Once you have an > inode open, it stays open until everything using it closes it. So you can > add/delete/copy/move files by name with impunity as you then just move > names around. Contrast this with other inferior systems, like say Windows > for example, which has a built-in self-destruct button when you try this...
Sure, but isn't there a problem with atime mtime metadata when you carry out a backup in real time and then restore from it? > > I was gravitating towards using LVM snapshot and then tar'ing that to an > > external USB drive. > > This is the preferred way, as you get a consistent snapshot frozen at a > point in time. This deals nicely with inconsistencies caused by files > changing while you are backing up other ones. Right, that's what I was thinking too. What does restoring from a backed up snapshot involve? -- Regards, Mick
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