Which way should our admin backup our Universe data on a sun system,
tar or uvbackup?
Anyone have anecdotes in either situation.
Please don't shoot the messenger, looking for input.
TIA
Rob

rcamarda wrote:
The problem you are going to run into is that none of the *nix backups
(tar, cpio,...) will assure that the system is in a logically
consistent state when you back it up. If you go this route, you really
should have Universe shutdown.

My understanding (and I could be mistaken) is that, with transaction
logging configured, you can use uvbackup to take a "hot" backup. It
appears, at least on HP-UX, that it uses cpio as a back-up mechanism

Hi,

I use by preference uvbackup.

I create a account by account uvbackup file like this .

select uvaccount
readnext account
readv path from uvaccount,account,11
execute sh -c "find path -print > account.files"
execute sh -c uvbackup -f -v -s account.uvb.log -limit 1 -cmdfil
account.files | bzip2 > account.uvb.bz2
goto next account

I got three files :
- account.files (the file list of the backup)
- account.uvb.bz2 (the backup)
- account.uvb.log (the echoes of the backup to read errors if there is

it is really easy to restore files, record, ...
it make a integrity chek of your uvfile (see the footer after uvbackup)
you can use grep -v I_ to exclude indexes of the list (uvbackup take it with
the file)
i use bzip2 because it support 64k files (> 2gb)
it is easy to restore into an other plateform
uvrestore create NEW files, vs cpio, tar which copies binary level
you can create incremental uvbackup
use -limit 1 to receive good performance
you can cron it
you can execute it with users on line,
it perform a record by record copy

perform some test to understand completly this tool.

I hope this help.
manu

"rcamarda" <robc390 (AT) hotmail (DOT) com> a écrit dans le message de news:
1150465937.679385.186930 (AT) c74g20...oglegroups.com...

rcamarda wrote:
Hi,

Horror story:

A site is using the traditional method of backup for universe on unix
being 'cpio'. A vital file got corrupted somehow, 'cpio' dutifully
copied the corrupted file to tape.

When the corrupted file was discovered and bought to the attention of
the IT manager, to late. ALL backup tapes had a copy of the corrupted
file.

This is a true story which happened only recently.

(Just for the record, was able to fix file and recover all data
manually, but was lucky)

Manu's advise is right on the money, these days use 'uvbackup', and
check the log files every morning...

Regards Barry