From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Mar 7 14:47:33 2005 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 539F816A4CF for ; Mon, 7 Mar 2005 14:47:33 +0000 (GMT) Received: from clunix.cl.msu.edu (clunix.cl.msu.edu [35.9.2.10]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id C444843D1F for ; Mon, 7 Mar 2005 14:47:32 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from jerrymc@clunix.cl.msu.edu) Received: (from jerrymc@localhost) by clunix.cl.msu.edu (8.11.7p1+Sun/8.11.7) id j27ElWW10343; Mon, 7 Mar 2005 09:47:32 -0500 (EST) From: Jerry McAllister Message-Id: <200503071447.j27ElWW10343@clunix.cl.msu.edu> To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Date: Mon, 7 Mar 2005 09:47:31 -0500 (EST) In-Reply-To: <1946173739.20050307145644@wanadoo.fr> from "Anthony Atkielski" at Mar 07, 2005 02:56:44 PM X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.5 PL2] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit cc: Jerry McAllister Subject: Re: What's the easiest way to do a backup and verify? X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 07 Mar 2005 14:47:33 -0000 > > Is there an easy way to combine a backup and verify when doing backups > with dump? > > On Windows NT it's just a matter of checking a box. I seem to recall > the last time I looked into this on UNIX there was no easy way to > accomplish a verify operation for a backup, but perhaps things have > changed with FreeBSD 5.3 (?). > > I've never had a problem with backup (I backup to DAT tape), but I'd > feel better if every backup was followed by a verify to make sure the > tape is readable. Actually, if used frequently for backups - such as every day, DAT is notoriously prone to failure. So, it is a good idea to check dumps made to DAT. Unfortunately, there is not a reasonable way to automatically do it. There is a verify, but it cannot work on a running system, because it compares files (inodes) on the tape back to the ones on disk. Any changes mean an error, even if it was a real change in the file between the time it was written and the time it was read back. The only real thing you can do is to read back the tape and look for a couple of files with fairly high inode numbers for each file system dumped. If you can read them, you can assume the tape is readable. ////jerry > > -- > Anthony >