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