[H-GEN] Cloning Linux System

[Robert Brockway]

On Mon, 6 Jun 2005, Stephen Thorne wrote:

> I recall that there was some form of bug associated with 'dump' and
> newer linux kernels, and a quick google shows this:
> http://lwn.net/2001/0503/kernel.php3
> 
> the dump tool is still maintained, but I don't see anything in the
> CHANGES file that acknowledges the kernel bugs...

It's not really a bug per se.  It was pointed out by Linus and others 
stale data could be backed up with dump for ext2/3 because of the way it 
interacts with the cache.  The Humbug-General archives should contain a 
lengthy discussion on this.  It's worth noting that other tools called 
dump exist for other filesystems such as ufs.

I use dump all the time and have not had issues (although I use xfsdump 
much more).

> Either way, neither dump or dd are the tools to use for backing up a
> live system imho, you're better off using netcat and tar or rsync.

I'd avoid dd for live read-write filesystems for the reasons mentioned by 
Jason.  I use dd when backing up ntfs or v(fat) but I make sure they are 
not live/read-write.

Tar is a good tool for backups but I have a preference for dump partly 
for reasons of convenience.

If you are backing up xfs then SGI officially recommends xfsdump which 
they confirm is fine to use on live filesystems.  xfsdump is the only tool 
which will capture the xfs extended attributes (not that they are used 
much).

Rob

-- 
Robert Brockway B.Sc.
Senior Technical Consultant, OpenTrend Solutions Ltd.
Phone: +1-416-669-3073 Email: rbrockway at opentrend.net http://www.opentrend.net
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