From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Sep 30 03:49:06 2009 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 449071065670 for ; Wed, 30 Sep 2009 03:49:06 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from wblock@wonkity.com) Received: from wonkity.com (wonkity.com [67.158.26.137]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 9E7C88FC0C for ; Wed, 30 Sep 2009 03:49:05 +0000 (UTC) Received: from wonkity.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by wonkity.com (8.14.3/8.14.3) with ESMTP id n8U3n1G2045543; Tue, 29 Sep 2009 21:49:01 -0600 (MDT) (envelope-from wblock@wonkity.com) Received: from localhost (wblock@localhost) by wonkity.com (8.14.3/8.14.3/Submit) with ESMTP id n8U3n1FC045540; Tue, 29 Sep 2009 21:49:01 -0600 (MDT) (envelope-from wblock@wonkity.com) Date: Tue, 29 Sep 2009 21:49:01 -0600 (MDT) From: Warren Block To: Polytropon In-Reply-To: Message-ID: References: <4AC29BE6.4000505@videotron.ca> <4AC2B3BB.4080807@videotron.ca> <20090930040733.91cc32d4.freebsd@edvax.de> <4AC2C6FE.5030507@videotron.ca> <20090930051819.be26dc3b.freebsd@edvax.de> User-Agent: Alpine 2.00 (BSF 1167 2008-08-23) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed X-Greylist: Sender IP whitelisted, not delayed by milter-greylist-4.2.2 (wonkity.com [127.0.0.1]); Tue, 29 Sep 2009 21:49:01 -0600 (MDT) Cc: PJ , freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: backups & cloning X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 30 Sep 2009 03:49:06 -0000 On Tue, 29 Sep 2009, Warren Block wrote: > On Wed, 30 Sep 2009, Polytropon wrote: > >> On Tue, 29 Sep 2009 22:48:30 -0400, PJ wrote: >>> Duh.... I think I see where this is leading... I'm pretty sure it was >>> issued from / which makes it redundant, right? I should have issued it >>> from somewhere else, like from home, usr or whatever but not from / as >>> that is what I was trying to dump.... :-[ >> >> The working directory does only matter to the restore command. >> The dump command just cares for the partition name. In order >> to find out what partition corresponds with which subtree, >> check /etc/fstab or run the >> >> # mount >> /dev/ad0s1a on / (ufs, local) >> /dev/ad0s1d on /tmp (ufs, local, soft-updates) >> /dev/ad0s1e on /var (ufs, local, soft-updates) >> /dev/ad0s1f on /usr (ufs, local, soft-updates) >> /dev/ad0s1g on /export/home (ufs, local, soft-updates) >> >> command, as in the example above. > > Why make it harder than it needs to be? Call it / or /var or /usr instead of > /dev/ad0s1whatever. dump will handle it. It's built for that. If it's a > live filesystem, add -L. > > http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/backup-basics.html#AEN25814 Just to add a possibly more relevant example from the FAQ: http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/faq/disks.html#NEW-HUGE-DISK That example has the user connect the new disk to the old system. That works, but I've always felt it's too easy to get the disks mixed up and write to the wrong one. So usually I back up /, /var, and /usr to files on a USB disk or sshfs. Then I switch to the new target system, booting it with a FreeBSD disk and doing a minimal install. That makes sure the MBR is installed, gives me a chance to set all the filesystem sizes, and newfses them. Then I restore from the dump files created earlier, over the running system. First /usr, then /var, then /. On reboot, it's a clone. -Warren Block * Rapid City, South Dakota USA