[BBLISA] using dump?

[John Stoffel]

Scott> I finally got a tape drive installed on a RHEL5 server, and
Scott> want to dump multiple local filesystems (and eventually
Scott> NFS-mounted ones) to tape.

Why do you want to use dump?  Or more accurately, what are your
"restore" requirements for this setup?  Do you only restore whole
filesystems, or will you restore single files?

And how long are you keeping the data around?

I'd also argue that dumping / and /usr is a waste of time these days,
just setup the proper environment to rebuild the system from kickstart
(or even an install CD) and setup the base configuration for you.
Then restore the applications/data you need.

Scott> What is the most recommended dump command line option setup to use?

Scott> I've tried, for example,

Scott> dump -0u -z2 -f /dev/st0 / /home but that failed

Scott> dump -0u -z2 -f /dev/st0/home.dump / /home but that failed

Scott> dump -0u -z2 -f /dev/st0 /home does work (one filesystem).

Scott> Can I safely have multiple dump statements to reflect each
Scott> filesystem to dump?

You can dump multiple filesystems to a single tape if you are careful
to use the /dev/nst# mechanism.  By default, /dev/st0 will rewind the
tape at the end of writing.  /dev/nst0 will not, which is what you want.

Scott> I want to dump /var and /home anyway, and ideally the whole
Scott> filesystem.

Whay /var?  I assume for some application data, right?  

Scott> Once I get an NFS system mounted, any changes to how I would
Scott> dump it, or simply use its local mount point?

I'd recommend that you spend the time to install and use either Amanda
or Bacula for your backups.  You'll be happier than with dump I
think.  They both have a learning curve, but they can both scale up
from a single system to a much larger setup with multiple clients.

John