Re: tar vs dump

[Art Wildman <Art.Wildman@noaa.gov>]

jassduec@gmail.com wrote:
> Hi All,
>
> Which is more reliable and better for taking full and incremental
> backups tar or dump. I like dump more but came across some articles on
> the redhat website with references to emails from Linus which state
> that dump should not be used for backup on a linux system.
>
> Are there some free backup tools on linux which can take fast and
> reliable full and incremental backups? I have been doing backup on
> Solaris for years now and never had any issue with ufsdump, ufsrestore
> and snapshots. Is it possible to get similar reliability on linux.
>

Tar vs Dump invites a debate (flame war) thread, which has been overdone 
& well documented in a variety of mail-lists, forums, howtos & books. If 
you are using exotic file-systems or partition managers... Reiser, 
XFS...  LVM you should research alternatives to dump (xfsdump) relative 
to your file system. If you like dump & understand how to use it on 
"unmounted and read-only filesystems", there is little reason not to use 
it for simple backups. Many examples of dump/restore schemes & scripts 
exist for linux, and many admins are quite comfortable with it.

Is dump deprecated?
http://dump.sourceforge.net/isdumpdeprecated.html
SAmag - Managing Multi-File System Backup Using dump/restore
http://www.samag.com/documents/s=1185/sam9811b/9811b.htm

There are many backup schemes and tools, it really depends on the 
application and environment. Backing up live systems, open files and 
data bases can be complex & there are more than a few pitfalls which 
many commercial apps try to resolve. In the end, you must do your own 
homework & pick your poison.

A good collection of Linux Backup resources...
http://www.linux-backup.net/
http://www.debianhelp.co.uk/backup.htm

Some Backup Docs
http://www.backupcentral.com/thebook.html
http://tldp.org/LDP/sag/html/sag.html#BACKUPS-INTRO
http://www.seifried.org/security/index.php/Linux_Backup_Guide
http://tldp.org/LDP/solrhe/Securing-Optimizing-Linux-RH-Edition-v1.3/backup-rest.html
http://tldp.org/LDP/solrhe/Securing-Optimizing-Linux-The-Ultimate-Solution-v2.0.pdf 
#pg787
http://www.linuxhomenetworking.com/wiki/index.php/Quick_HOWTO_:_Ch34_:_Basic_MySQL_Configuration#MySQL_Database_Backup

I have used find + cpio for years, very flexible (scriptable + excludes) 
& can span partitions gets paths right.
# EXCLUDE='^./lost\+found$|\.rpm$'
# find /home -xdev -depth -print | egrep -v ${EXCLUDE} | cpio -dumpav 
/mnt/backup
http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=jaxlug-list&m=111177853101808&w=2
http://www.debianhelp.co.uk/cpiocommand.htm

Cloning: dd, Images and MondoRescue can be useful...
Wonders of 'dd' and 'netcat': Cloning OS harddrives
http://www.rajeevnet.com/hacks_hints/os_clone/os_cloning.html
http://www.inference.phy.cam.ac.uk/saw27/notes/backup-hard-disk-partitions.html
Mondo Rescue
http://www.mondorescue.org/about.shtml
http://www.systemimager.org/
http://www.sysresccd.org/Main_Page
Ghost for Linux + NTFS Disk Image Cloning - supports network imaging
http://directory.fsf.org/g4l.html
g4u - Harddisk Image Cloning for PCs - BSD based
http://www.feyrer.de/g4u/

Snapshots are another popular solution...
Create Incremental Snapshot-style Backups With rSync And SSH - HowtoForge
http://www.howtoforge.com/rsync_incremental_snapshot_backups
Easy Automated Snapshot-Style Backups with Rsync
http://www.mikerubel.org/computers/rsync_snapshots/
rsnapshot HOWTO
http://www.rsnapshot.org/howto/1.2/rsnapshot-HOWTO.en.html
Dirvish - fast, disk based, rotating network backup system
http://www.dirvish.org
Configuring and Using Dirvish for Snapshot Backups
http://edseek.com/~jasonb/articles/dirvish_backup/

Bacula - the Network Backup Tool for Linux, Unix, and Windows
http://www.bacula.org/
http://www.amanda.org/

-HTH Art@JAX

--
Art Wildman - http://www.srh.noaa.gov/jax
"Nothing will ever be attempted if all possible objections must first be
overcome." --Samuel Johnson