[linux-lvm] getting started with LVM

[linux-lvm] getting started with LVM

[Ben Snyder]

I am currently doing some research for my employer regarding storage and 
backups.  We currently use dump as a backup utility due to limited 
budget.  However, dump has been giving us fits due to lseek errors.

Someone suggested looking into LVM, so here I am.  I looked a the 
website and did a little digging, but I was unable to find out if LVM 
will serve my purposes.

If anyone can lend a hand and provide feedback that can tell me if LVM 
is worth my effort to solve this problem, or where I can find this sort 
of information, I'd be vert greatful.

Thanks in advance...

Re: [linux-lvm] getting started with LVM

[lembark]

-- Ben Snyder <ben@jumpline.com> on 05/23/02 16:43:24 -0400

> I am currently doing some research for my employer regarding storage and
> backups.  We currently use dump as a backup utility due to limited budget.
> However, dump has been giving us fits due to lseek errors.
> 
> Someone suggested looking into LVM, so here I am.  I looked a the website and
> did a little digging, but I was unable to find out if LVM will serve my
> purposes.
> 
> If anyone can lend a hand and provide feedback that can tell me if LVM is
> worth my effort to solve this problem, or where I can find this sort of
> information, I'd be vert greatful.

Dumping dump might be the first thing that would help. It's
old and tired and deserves a rest... For free utilities you
can get better speed and filtering with cpio, which backs
up from the file system rather than inodes. At that point
LVM is a nice solution for managing anything large enough to
be backed up.

--
Steven Lembark                              2930 W. Palmer
Workhorse Computing                      Chicago, IL 60647
                                           +1 800 762 1582

Re: [linux-lvm] getting started with LVM

[Ben Snyder]

Something I probably should have mentioned....due to some software we 
use to serve our customers, we have hard links - TONS of them.  We 
looked at cpio, but cpio does not restore hardlinks correctly, dump 
will.  We also looked at tar, 'star', dd, just about anything to take 
the data from one device/filesystem to another.

Thanks for the feedback though.

lembark@wrkhors.com wrote:

>
>-- Ben Snyder <ben@jumpline.com> on 05/23/02 16:43:24 -0400
>
>>I am currently doing some research for my employer regarding storage and
>>backups.  We currently use dump as a backup utility due to limited budget.
>>However, dump has been giving us fits due to lseek errors.
>>
>>Someone suggested looking into LVM, so here I am.  I looked a the website and
>>did a little digging, but I was unable to find out if LVM will serve my
>>purposes.
>>
>>If anyone can lend a hand and provide feedback that can tell me if LVM is
>>worth my effort to solve this problem, or where I can find this sort of
>>information, I'd be vert greatful.
>>
>
>Dumping dump might be the first thing that would help. It's
>old and tired and deserves a rest... For free utilities you
>can get better speed and filtering with cpio, which backs
>up from the file system rather than inodes. At that point
>LVM is a nice solution for managing anything large enough to
>be backed up.
>
>--
>Steven Lembark                              2930 W. Palmer
>Workhorse Computing                      Chicago, IL 60647
>                                           +1 800 762 1582
>
>_______________________________________________
>linux-lvm mailing list
>linux-lvm@sistina.com
>http://lists.sistina.com/mailman/listinfo/linux-lvm
>read the LVM HOW-TO at http://www.sistina.com/lvm/Pages/howto.html
>
>

Re: [linux-lvm] getting started with LVM

[Lewis Bergman]

On Thursday 23 May 2002 03:55 pm, Ben Snyder wrote:
> Something I probably should have mentioned....due to some software we
> use to serve our customers, we have hard links - TONS of them.  We
> looked at cpio, but cpio does not restore hardlinks correctly, dump
> will.  We also looked at tar, 'star', dd, just about anything to take
> the data from one device/filesystem to another.
Have you considered using cp -aux? It should restore hardlinks.
-- 
Lewis Bergman
Texas Communications
4309 Maple St.
Abilene, TX 79602-8044
915-695-6962 ext 115

Re: [linux-lvm] getting started with LVM

[Wolfgang Weisselberg]

Hi, Ben!

Ben Snyder (ben@jumpline.com) wrote 54 lines:

> Something I probably should have mentioned....due to some software we 
> use to serve our customers, we have hard links - TONS of them. 

Have you looked at afio (and it's -4 option for dealing with more
than 64k hardlinks)?  Be sure to read the 'BUGS' section as well.

Oh, and afio can compress the backup -- by compressing 'per
file', thus corruption only kills the affected files.

-Wolfgang

Re: [linux-lvm] getting started with LVM

[William Blunn]

> Something I probably should have mentioned....due to some software we 
> use to serve our customers, we have hard links - TONS of them.  We 
> looked at cpio, but cpio does not restore hardlinks correctly, dump 
> will.  We also looked at tar, 'star', dd, just about anything to take 
> the data from one device/filesystem to another.

To copy data from one filesystem another, preserving hard links, I use:

  rsync  -avxSHW  /source-dir/  /target-dir

  -a   same meaning as for "cp" i.e. recurse and copy metadata
  -v   be verbose
  -x   do not cross filesystem boundaries
  -S   handle sparse files
  -H   handle hard links
  -W   only copy whole files

  Trailing slash on source-dir makes it copy *contents* of directory
  rather than directory itself.

It only copies changed changed files.

Be sure to use version 2.5.2 or higher of rsync.

Bill
-- 
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