backing up /sys
Rick Stevens
rstevens at vitalstream.com
Tue Jun 28 22:12:02 UTC 2005
Bob McClure Jr wrote:
> On Tue, Jun 28, 2005 at 02:28:15PM -0700, Rick Stevens wrote:
>
>>Bob McClure Jr wrote:
>>
>>>I'm in the process of checking out a CD/DVD-based backup package.
>>>
>>>http://www.bluehaze.com.au/unix/cdbkup.html
>>>
>>>In my first test, I noticed in the error log a bunch of carps about
>>>file sizes changing in /sys. I know that /proc is a pseudo filesystem
>>>comprising nothing but hooks into the kernel, and I know that I don't
>>>want to back that up. /sys looks like the same sort of thing, full of
>>>directories that take up 0 bytes, down to files that ls reports as
>>>4096 bytes.
>>>
>>>Is it safe to assume I don't want to backup /sys?
>>
>>Yes. That's the infamous "sysfs" stuff. You want to back up the
>>directory name, but not its contents. Also beware of some "dev" stuff
>>(from "devfs" and "udev").
>>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>>- Rick Stevens, Senior Systems Engineer rstevens at vitalstream.com -
>>- VitalStream, Inc. http://www.vitalstream.com -
>>- -
>>- Always remember you're unique, just like everyone else. -
>>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
> That's what I figured.
>
> I'm still deciding whether I want to continue just backing up root,
> home, etc, var, and usr/local, and restore that on to a freshly
> installed system, or to make a complete backup from which I can
> restore to a bare-metal (or possibily minimally installed) system.
Uhm, gee. I back up each filesystem individually with exclusions.
I do this using two different methods: amanda (to DLT tapes) and using a
fairly complex "find" command to build ISO images for burning to DVDs.
> You won't be surprised at the reason for my sudden interest in this.
> Yeah, two disk crashes in the last month.
Wow! Bad hardware, power spikes or the family dog lifting his leg on
the system?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
- Rick Stevens, Senior Systems Engineer rstevens at vitalstream.com -
- VitalStream, Inc. http://www.vitalstream.com -
- -
- Do you know how to save five drowning lawyers? No? GOOD! -
----------------------------------------------------------------------
More information about the Redhat-install-list
mailing list