Thanks to all who replied to my question.
Stanley Horwitz <stan_at_astro.ocis.temple.edu>
"Leonard, Roger" <rleonard_at_cvty.com>
Dale Inman, DINMAN_at_aladdin-asi.com
Simon, Denise" <Denise.Simon_at_compaq.com>
"Lawson, Gordon" <Gordon.Lawson_at_uk.akzonobel.com>
"Fliguer, Miguel" <M_Fliguer_at_miniphone.com.ar>
Oisin McGuinness <oisin_at_sbcm.com>
"richard n. frank" <rnfrank_at_wolfram.llnl.gov>
Jay Leafey <jay.leafey_at_mindless.com>
alan_at_nabeth.cxo.dec.com
Jim Bostwick <Jim_Bostwick_at_cargill.com>
simon.millard_at_barclays.co.uk
Gwen Pettigrew <gwen_at_itg.cam.ac.uk>
Bob Vickers <bobv_at_dcs.rhbnc.ac.uk>
Nick Hill, N.M.Hill_at_rl.ac.uk
Larry Griffith <larry_at_cs.wsc.ma.edu>
"Lavelle, Bryan" <Bryan.Lavelle_at_COMPAQ.com>
Most said to use the clonefs utility from the ADVFS advanced utilities. I
have not tried it yet, but will. Here are some excerpts from the
respondents' emails:
We use Legato's NetWorker software here to do live backups on our Unix,
Windows, and Mac machines. See
http://www.legato.com for details.
------------
Invest in a good quality DLT IV compatible DAT drive like a DEC TZ89.
--------------
1) kick users out (they should know this in advance, of course :-),
2) then shutdown all databases (to ensure nobody is accessing the
file systems),
3) clone the file systems and mount the clones
4) startup the databases and let everybody in
5) vdump the cloned filesystems (they´re a snapshot of the
database in a consistent state)
---------------
And now for something completely different (great, but
much more expensive) ...
1) Move your file systems to an EMC Symmetrix array
2) Use the BCV feature to establish/break mirrors of
your file systems
3) Do the backup on the "broken" mirrors.
Here we´re using a combination of cloning and the above
procedure (we have a couple EMC arrays in addition of our
StorageWorks disk cabinets).
---------------
Using clonefs gives you the exact state of the filesets at the time the
clone is made. You need enough free space on your domains for any changing
files during the duration the clone is alive. There were also initial
reports that 4.0D patch 3 broke the previous behaviour of DU in that the
removal of clones caused suspension of activities on the whole domain
containing the fileset. I would double check your 4.0E patch kit release
notes for checking that this is not a problem.
Note also that rmfset's may take time proportional to the number of files
in the fileset.
--------------
clonefset users_domain staff staff_clone
mount -r users_domain#staff_clone /mnt
vdump -0 -f /dev/nrmt0h /mnt # just my preference, your mileage may
vary
umount /mnt
rmfset -f users_domain#staff_clone
The clonefset command makes a checkpointed copy of the parent fileset, which
you then mount on any handy mount point and back it up. Once finished,
remove the mount point and destroy the clone fileset. There are some issues
around not running defrag or rmvol or anything else that might be changing
the state of the file domain, but that's the general idea.
-------------
For database systems that insist on consistency within
and across table spaces, the only safe thing to do is
shutdown the database, snapshot or backup the data and
then restart the database. Or, hope your database vendor
offers online backup software.
--------------
if [ `mount | grep -q "\/mnt" | wc -l` -gt 0 ]
then
echo You must umount the file system on /mnt first
exit
else
MOUNT_POINT="/mnt"
fi
mt rewind
clonefset usr_domain usr usr_clone
mount -t advfs usr_domain#usr_clone ${MOUNT_POINT}
echo Dumping /usr
vdump -0u -f /dev/nrmt0h -x 8 ${MOUNT_POINT}
umount ${MOUNT_POINT}
sleep 5 # IMPORTANT: rmfset seems to need both "sleep"s
rmfset -f usr_domain usr_clone
sleep 5
# Ditto all other filesets
echo;echo Backup is finished;echo
--------------
You need to have the Advfs Advanced utilities installed with
the appropriate license to create and use clone sets. Issue a setld -i|grep
AFA to determine if the subset is loaded. Issue a lmf list|grep -i adv to
see if you have the ADVFS-UTILITIES license loaded.
At 03:57 PM 6/29/99 -0400, you wrote:
>
>Managers,
>
>I have a AlphaServer 1000A 5/333 running DU4.0E patch kit #1. The system
>uses ADVFS file systems. It does not use LSM. My questions is, what do I
>need hardware or software wise to be able to do backups (full and
>incremental) and other system maintenance while the system is up? How do I
>do a full backup without logging off all of the users? Do I have to
>shutdown the machine to single user mode and do the backup at the console?
>Or can I do backups remotely? At this point all options are acceptable,
>even if it means a totally new machine or configuration.
>
>192 Mb RAM
>333 MHz CPU
>1 RZ28 2G disk
>2 RZ29 4G disk
>1 RZ40 9G disk
>RRD45 CDROM
>Floppy Drive
>TLZ06 tape drive
>Ethernet card
>FDDI card
>
>root_domain#root /
>/proc /proc
>usr_domain#usr /usr
>var_domain#var /var
>usr_domain#local /usr/local
>users_domain#staff /usr/users/staff
>users_domain#faculty /usr/users/faculty
>users_domain#classes /usr/users/classes
>users_domain#students /usr/users/students
>users_domain#other /usr/users/other
>work_domain#work /work
>
>
> Ellen Davis
> Ellen.Davis_at_uc.edu
>
>
Ellen Davis
Ellen.Davis_at_uc.edu
Received on Tue Jul 06 1999 - 13:17:27 NZST