From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: from mail-qt0-f195.google.com ([209.85.216.195]:54409 "EHLO mail-qt0-f195.google.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1752905AbdJLA6k (ORCPT ); Wed, 11 Oct 2017 20:58:40 -0400 Received: by mail-qt0-f195.google.com with SMTP id z19so10635034qtg.11 for ; Wed, 11 Oct 2017 17:58:40 -0700 (PDT) Received: from lubh.lubhome ([179.34.192.80]) by smtp.gmail.com with ESMTPSA id w6sm1780706qtc.53.2017.10.11.17.58.38 for (version=TLS1_2 cipher=ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256 bits=128/128); Wed, 11 Oct 2017 17:58:39 -0700 (PDT) Date: Wed, 11 Oct 2017 21:58:30 -0300 From: Luciano ES Subject: Re: Questions about backups with XFS Message-ID: <20171011215830.34959f4d@lubh.lubhome> In-Reply-To: <20171009084451.yj7fvv6wqra27vuo@hades.localdomain> References: <20171007114343.3bd42f98@lubh.lubhome> <20171009084451.yj7fvv6wqra27vuo@hades.localdomain> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: linux-xfs-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: List-Id: xfs To: linux-xfs@vger.kernel.org On Mon, 9 Oct 2017 10:44:51 +0200, Carlos Maiolino wrote: > Hi. > > > On Sat, Oct 07, 2017 at 02:43:43PM +0000, Luciano ES wrote: > > I have a few questions and I was torn between asking them > > separately and putting them all in one message. I decided for the > > latter and I hope this is not a problem. > > > > Once upon a time, many many years ago, I used to make backup copies > > of my file systems with the 'cp -aux' command, including my live > > root file system. Luckily, I never had to restore any live root > > file system from those backups. They probably would never have > > worked. > > > > Later on, someone taught me to do it like this: > > > > find /source -xdev -print0 | cpio -pa0V /target > > > > That command is supposed to copy everything, including special > > files (not really sure which) that mere cp or even rsync would not > > copy. I actually used that approach several times, including > > restoration, and it always worked. > > > > For some reason, I stopped making backups of my live root file > > system, but I still backup other partitions with rsync, always with > > the --delete-before parameter, so the target is always an exact > > copy of the source. > > > > I have been using XFS for a few years and thought that maybe it's > > time I enjoyed all the benefits of the XFS management tools. > > However, I am uncertain about things I haven't been able to find in > > the documentation or even on the Web: > > > > Question #1: > > Does xfsdump really copy EVERYTHING? Can I backup a full live root > > file system with it and expect a restored copy to boot and run > > uneventfully? Or should I rather do a 'hard' image with xfs_copy? > > xfs_copy must only be used an unmounted filesystem (or read-only, > frozen, etc), so, unless you want to freeze/unmount your FS everytime > you do a xfs_copy, then xfs_copy is not what you are looking for You say that as if it were a bad thing. What is the problem with freezing the file system every time I do an xfs_copy? I would likely do that once a month, perhaps once a week at most, so why not? What is inherently bad about freezing the file system for a few minutes? -- Luciano ES >>