Date: Wed, 05 Sep 2001 16:20:48 +0200 (CEST) From: Micke Josefsson <mj@isy.liu.se> To: Fernan Aguero <fernan@iib.unsam.edu.ar> Cc: FreeBSD Questions <freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG> Subject: RE: tape backup newbie Message-ID: <XFMail.010905162048.mj@isy.liu.se> In-Reply-To: <20010904182517.C3750@iib005.iib.unsam.edu.ar>
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On 04-Sep-01 Fernan Aguero wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I have reached a certain size limits on my backups and thus I am
> thinking about switching from CD-R backups to tape backups
> [unless I can confirm that a new dump version that can work with CDs
> will work on FreeBSD, but that's for another thread]
>
> I have been doing some research on this topic but there seem to be a
> lot of things that are taken for granted in almost every tutorial.
> They talk about tape backups as if you already have or know how tape
> backups work.
>
> Does any of you have good pointers to very basic tutorials or howtos
> that answer the kind of questions like:
>
> - can I use 1 tape to do several full backups one after the other?
> (suppose I have a 24GB tape and my full backups are 5-10GB)
Yes! Use the nonrewinding device nrsaX. With the rewinding device the tape is
rewound after each dump - not what you want!
>
> - likewise can I use 1 tape to do several incremental backups one after
> the other?
Yes, as above. However, the tape must be inserted the whole time as it is
rewound at insertion. You can of course skip the first NN dumps and start anew
from there.
>
> - how are the dumps written to tape? Do I have to take care of naming
> the dump output files uniquely so as to identify them later? (is it
> clear that I have never used a tape before?)
dumps are written just as they are, no filenames. There is no filesystem on the
tape, only a looong series of bytes. EOF signals end of a dump, two EOFs signal
end of all dumps on that tape. Use mt command to move forward and backward along
the tape. You are personally responsible for what is on the tape ("hmm, the 4th
dump is what I want, I have to move forward to that, then restore from there")
>
> Thanks in advance,
>
> Fernan
>
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Michael Josefsson, MSEE
mj@isy.liu.se
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