Re: Linux Backup Administration

From: Angela Kahealani (angela_at_kahealani.com)
Date: 07/02/05

  • Next message: Ben Steeves: "Re: Fedora Core 4 on thinkpad T30. After install the login prompt is so large all I can see is Please" 
    To: For users of Fedora Core releases <fedora-list@redhat.com>
Date: Fri, 1 Jul 2005 14:05:51 -1000

    On Fri, 2005-07-01 13:26, Pedro Fernandes Macedo miswrote:
    > Mike McCarty wrote:
    > > Angela Kahealani wrote:
    > >> man man
    > >> man dump
    > >> man restore
    > >>
    > >> works great with DVD-RAM cartridges.

    > What is a DVD-RAM cartridge?

    see below...

    > I'd avoid to use dump/restore.. Use tar + gzip or tar + bz2. You'll
    > get good compression rates and all permissions will be kept.
    > If you use dump , you're copying *everything* from the disk,
    > including the data structures used to store the data and permissions
    > on disk, which is a waste of space.

    which, considering SE-GNU/Linux(TM-Richard Stallman / Linus Torvalds)
    is *bad*, why?

    > And I think he meant DVD-RAM disc?

    I'm the one using DVD-RAM disks as tapes...
    yes, you can also partition them, format them, install filesystems on
    them, and mount them as hard disk partitions (which write *slowly*).
    I use the Matsushita (Panasonic) series mostly:
    hda: MATSHITA DVD-RAM LF-D311, ATAPI DVD-ROM DVD-R-RAM drive,
    1024kB Cache, UDMA(33)
    hdb: MATSHITA PD-2 LF-D110, ATAPI DVD-ROM DVD-RAM drive,
    2048kB Cache, DMA
    hdc: MATSHITA CR-585, ATAPI 24X CD-ROM drive, 128kB
    Cache, DMA
    hdd: ASUS CRW-5232AS, ATAPI 52X CD-ROM CD-R/RW drive,
    2048kB Cache, UDMA(33)
    Uniform CD-ROM driver Revision: 3.20

    > Because my DVD burner works with
    > DVD-RAM and it is a disc like any DVD, except that it's golden and
    > works pretty much like a big UDF filesystem (like those packet
    > writing apps that windows used on CD-RW) -- Pedro Macedo

    Even the first generation "DVD-RAM" drive (hdb above) which writes
    single sided 2.6GB disks (format out about 2.3GB) or
    double sided 5.2GB disks (format out about 4.7GB) goes beyond the 2GB
    barrier of some old software/systems to handle either:
    files of length greater than 2GB
    file-systems larger than 2GB
    so depending upon how you partition, format, and which filesystem you
    use on a DVD-RAM drive (noatime recommended for speed), you may run
    into 2GB barriers which you don't see when you treat the cartridge as a
    "tape" of greater than 2GB length, which various versions of tar (e.g.
    s-tar (star)) and/or dump/restore use with no problems. This has "just
    worked" since Redhat9 (maybe earlier?)... I've not encountered anything
    that couldn't handle these cartridges as raw block devices (tapes).

    Since dump/restore manages multiple volumes and detects end of tape
    without you telling it volume size, it's pretty much a no brainer...
    and DVD-RAM offers the unique advantage of protecting those
    scratch-prone fingerprint-prone dust-prone optical disks safely
    protected in a cartridge... your 5.25" Diskette of the modern day.

    I've found .tgz's written to DVD-RAM are infinitely portable... and,
    oh, yeah, when you get to a drive that won't accept the cartridge, you
    take the single sided disk out of the cartridge and all drives treat it
    as a DVD-ROM you can restore from or tar -vxzf /dev/dvd-ram

    WIth a write life of 100,000 versus {C/DV}D-RW's 10,000 cycles.

    A backed-up computer user is a happy computer user :-) 

    -- 
All information and transactions are non negotiable and are private 
between the parties. All rights reserved without prejudice, Copyright 
2005 Angela Kahealani http://www.kahealani.com/
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