[BBLISA] Definition of dump levels?

[Edward Ned Harvey]

A dump of any dump-level will backup all files that have changed since the
most recent dump of a lower dump-level.  This is basically an unnecessarily
large level of abstraction, the guys who originally wrote it were thinking
*way* broader than necessary.

There's a nice simple analogy, if you're familiar with Full / Incremental /
Differential backups.

* Think of a Full Backup like level 0.  It gets everything no matter what.
* Think of a Incremental like level 5.  It gets everything that changed
since the last full, and creates an intermediate stage, so your
differentials/level 9's don't have to copy that stuff again.
* Think of a Differential like level 9.  It gets everything since the most
recent 0 or 5.

Depending on how much data you're talking about, you might do something like
this:
Run a daily script, which does this:
	If today's the 1st of the month, 
		Do a level 0.
	Else:
		If today's Sunday, 
			Do a level 5
		Else:
			Do a level 9

That would get you your Monthly fulls, Weekly incrementals, and daily
differentials.

As mentioned by John, most people don't have a large enough quantity of data
to mess around with Incremental/level 5.  Most people will do something like
weekly level0, and daily level9.




> -----Original Message-----
> From: bblisa-bounces at bblisa.org [mailto:bblisa-bounces at bblisa.org] On
> Behalf Of Scott Ehrlich
> Sent: Saturday, January 05, 2008 8:33 AM
> To: bblisa at bblisa.org
> Subject: [BBLISA] Definition of dump levels?
> 
> I've seen so many references to dump levels, but none of them,
> including the
> man page, actually says what, specifically, each level covers.
> 
> For example, a level 0 would presumably back up everything.  But will
> it still
> do so if I perform a level 0 today, update /etc/dumpdates, then perform
> another
> level 0 just after, and no files have changed?
> 
> What about the other levels?  What do they do?
> 
> Thanks.
> 
> Scott
> 
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