SCO Backup Strategies : Best Practices???

[antzzz]

HI, I'm a newbie in SCO Open Server Administration (Release 5.05) and I need help in backing up the system. I have two hard disks: One contains the root filesystem (/) plus /u and other essential Unix filesystems, the other contains raw devices (/dev/online1 and /dev/online2) being used as DBspaces for a database. Now I need to backup the entire system ie. both drives. As I understand, in Unix, the /dev directory is under the (/) root directory. So if I just specify the (/) root filesystem in my backup will it backup the other hard disk as well?? Please advise.

Another thing, SCO recommends that I use Backup Manager, backup, or cpio to do filesystem backups. When I told some of my colleagues about this, they laughed and said that they only use tar to get the job done! Who's right and who's wrong? When I typed "man tar", I read that tar was not designed to backup entire filesystems. PLease advise. Thanks!

 

[edfair]

Tar is not designed for complete filesystems. It will, however, back every file that needs to be backed up.
Since mounted drives attach to the root, backing up root will back up your second and third additional filesystems.
There are some failures with tar that will get you into trouble. If you have tape problems it is possible that part of your files will be OK and others will be unaccessable. Tar will leave you hanging in the wind. Having said that, I use tar for some backups.
A better alternative is to use a super tar product. Backupedge and Lonetar are two of those products. They allow more robust controls of the the backup process and do a bit by bit verify of the tape after the backup is complete. Very comfortable feeling with either and the retail price of about 300.00 isn't excessive.
Some administrators use CPIO. My sole experience with CPIO was a disaster and I've never looked back. Ed Fair
efair@atlnet.com

Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply.

Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.

 

[abovebrd]

Please look at the attached link. It is a very helpful document relevant to this topic.

URL:

http://www.sco.com/cgi-bin/ssl_reference?107195

TA #: 107195


However you should also look at a product called lone-tar

http://www.cactus.com

It configures very easily and allows for fully automated back and restore jobs. I was able to do a full system restore to a new disk drive in under 1 hour, file systems and all.


-Danny

 

[itcamefrommars]

As danny said, lone-tar is a good product, but there is also Microlite's backup edge.
with over 150 servers i watch, i use microlite on most, lone-tar on a few. why?, i find microlite easier to administer and trouble shoot. both have their pluses and minuses, and i don't want to short lone-tar, just don't use it as much.
if you want to backup other machines on the network, cactus' backup professional seems to work pretty good, too.

microlite is at...

http://www.microlite.com

mbrown@computereaseinc.net

 

[Annihilannic]

Antzzz,

We use cpio without any problems; sample command line to backup all UNIX (i.e. not raw) filesystems from / is

find / -print | cpio -ovB -O /dev/rct0

Annihilannic.

 

[e2685]

Don't forget to backup your DB. I do a Backup with cpio to backup all user files, and other esential OS files, but i do an backuponline (Progress) for DB. If you have another DBMS then there should we command similar to this one.
The correct way to backup can be ansered by how much unix do you know.
Anyway after you select the best way, always and i mean always how a disaster recovery plan ready. Because thing can always go bad. We are as good as our last backup.

 

[JorGeVaL]

Tar and cpio are good commands but there is a big difference between tar and cpio and is that tar can not backup special devices files like those on /dev and also can not backup empty directories .

if you want a full backup of the operating system you should use cpio.

find / -depth -mount | cpio -ocv -O /dev/rct0 will only backup the root file system , the -mount option to the find command tells that.

If you omit the -mount option it will take all the mounted filesystems and make all in a single backup.

I hope this can help.