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