From owner-freebsd-isp@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Oct 27 06:41:18 2003 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-isp@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 922D416A4B3 for ; Mon, 27 Oct 2003 06:41:18 -0800 (PST) Received: from web1.nexusinternetsolutions.net (web1.nexusinternetsolutions.net [206.47.131.12]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 92FFD43FA3 for ; Mon, 27 Oct 2003 06:41:17 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from dave@hawk-systems.com) Received: (qmail 23017 invoked by uid 89); 27 Oct 2003 14:41:28 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO ws1) (65.49.236.97) by web1.nexusinternetsolutions.net with SMTP; 27 Oct 2003 14:41:28 -0000 From: "Dave [Hawk-Systems]" To: Date: Mon, 27 Oct 2003 09:41:16 -0500 Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Priority: 3 (Normal) X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook IMO, Build 9.0.6604 (9.0.2911.0) In-Reply-To: <20031027134939.GA35680@wjv.com> X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2800.1165 Importance: Normal cc: freebsd-isp@freebsd.org Subject: RE: restoring dumps from crashed drive X-BeenThere: freebsd-isp@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: Internet Services Providers List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 27 Oct 2003 14:41:18 -0000 >Coming from commercail Unix systems I've never been a large >fan of dump restore but having my clients use commercial >super-tar programs [called that because they handle devs, and >things that used to faily] that also have full verify restore too. I am gettin gthe impression that dump is more of a file archiver rather than a true system backup utility. >On the machine as the IPS [a colo facility] I use rsync to backup >the important data and var to get the database. But I never get >about 2 OS revs behind so I haven't had the problem you expressed. a noted shortcoming on our part. it wasn't broken so we didn't try to fix (aside from a few patches), which evidently came back to haunt us when a repair of this magnitute was required. >I got spoiled about 1990 using a program from alt souces that >did bit level verifies and then the commercial programs started >using that. I've seen more than one instance where backups >wouldn't restore because the backup failed for some reason or >other. None of that helps you now, but I'd strongly recommend >a program like that as you can put everything back just the way it >was - until you get to the point where new hardware makes a >complete identical restore impossible - eg new controllers, NICs, >etc. The dissapointment (or misunderstanding on my part of what dump/restore could handle) is that the hardware was identical, including the new hard drive make/model. Absolutely nothing had changed, it just didn't seem up to the task of restoring over a basic file system. one of those "never know if it works untill you have a disaster"... well we had one, and it didn't. Dave