16. Backup Procedures with Tapes

Some considerations when planning backup strategy

1. Schedule when and what to backup (here are some recommendations)
   • Boot – daily
   • /usr (operating system) – once after install
   • /opt (other software) – once after install
   • /export/home – daily
   • /var (logs, etc) maybe weekly
2. Relative backup – (dump levels) can backup just files that have changed (there are 9 dump levels)
   • 0 – all files and directories
   • 1 – only files that have changed since last dump (level 0)
   • 2 – only files that have changed since last dump (level 1)
   • 3,4,5,6,7,8,9 same as above 2.
3. Recycle vs. Store
4. Storage
5. Labels (put on tape, not case)

Tapes (24 labels to label 1 tape)

Different ways (/dev/rmt/___)

• 0 is base
• 0u – ultra high density 0un – no rewind of tape
• 0h – high density 0ln – no rewind of tape
• 0m – medium 0l – low
• 0c – compressed etc . . . . . .

To get the system to recognize a new peripheral device – boot –r (reconfiguration)

mt command – stands for magnetic tape. Example - mt –f /dev/rmt/0n fsf 5 this command will not rewind (the 0n does this) and will fast forward (fsf) to the 5th file. In Solaris 2.6 the 0n is default.

mt commands

• fsf [file number] – go forward (fast forward)
• rewind – rewind
• eom – end of media (goes to the last file of tape)
• ret – for reel to reel tapes
• offline – eject the tape
• status – shows info about the tape
• mt just rewinds and fast forwards basically

ufsdump, ufsrestore, and tar have similar syntax.

ufsdump (Unix file system dump) syntax: ufsdump [dumplevel] [where to backup to (device)], i.e. ufsdump 0 /dev/dsk/c0t0d0s0 or ufsdump [dump level] f (f = specify destination) [destination] [what to copy] i.e. ufsdump 0f /dev/rmt/0n /dev/dsk/c0t0d0s0 or ufsdump 0f [host name:destinaion] i.e. ufsdump of mycomputer:/dev/rmt0n (before n: 1st drive would be 0, 2nd drive would be 1, etc.) This would remote backup to backup server
(Note: host must have /.rhost with the nodes name that is saving to it.)

To keep a table of contents for usfdumps, make a file called /var/dump/[date].home. With ufsdump use the ‘a’ argument to create the table, i.e. ufsdump [dump level] a (to create level) f (to specify destination) [‘a’ variable information] [f variable information]. It would look like this: ufsdump 0af /var/dump/980414.home /dev/rmt/0n /dev/dsk/cot1d0s0.

Other ufsdump options:

• u – will update file to record backup for regular backups and will be relative to dump levels
• v (verify tape) – don’t verify, or verify any busy file system
• o – offline, eject when done

ufs restore [‘a’ to read from archive, ‘f’ to give path from where to read, ‘v’ for verbose mode, ‘r’ for restore, ‘x’ for extract and file, ‘t’ for table of contents, ‘i’ for interactive] [ archive file] [tape device]
(Note: do not put disk device on here, it will restore to present directory)

Steps to restoring:

• cd [destination] – because restore will put it where you are currently located
• ufsrestore x ./etc/vtoc
• fmthard –s ./etc/vtoc /dev/rdsk/c0t0d0s2
• newfs /dev/rdsk/c0t0d0s0
• more newfs commands
• mount

If you are ufsrestore, i of ufsrestore if /dev/rmt0n you will get ‘ufsrestore>’, then you can use cd, ls, add, delete, extract, and quit.

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