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!    -
----------------------------------------------------------------------




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