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-<!--
- The FreeBSD Documentation Project
-
- $FreeBSD: doc/en_US.ISO_8859-1/books/handbook/backups/chapter.sgml,v 1.24 2000/06/13 18:05:34 jim Exp $
--->
-
-<chapter id="backups">
- <title>Backups</title>
-
- <sect1>
- <title>Synopsis</title>
-
- <para>The following chapter will cover methods of backing up data, and
- the programs used to create those backups. If you would like to
- contribute something to this section, send it to the &a.doc;.</para>
- </sect1>
-
- <sect1 id="backups-tapebackups">
- <title>Tape Media</title>
-
- <para>The major tape media are the 4mm, 8mm, QIC, mini-cartridge and
- DLT.</para>
-
- <sect2 id="backups-tapebackups-4mm">
- <title>4mm (DDS: Digital Data Storage)</title>
-
- <para>4mm tapes are replacing QIC as the workstation backup media of
- choice. This trend accelerated greatly when Conner purchased Archive,
- a leading manufacturer of QIC drives, and then stopped production of
- QIC drives. 4mm drives are small and quiet but do not have the
- reputation for reliability that is enjoyed by 8mm drives. The
- cartridges are less expensive and smaller (3 x 2 x 0.5 inches, 76 x 51
- x 12 mm) than 8mm cartridges. 4mm, like 8mm, has comparatively short
- head life for the same reason, both use helical scan.</para>
-
- <para>Data throughput on these drives starts ~150kB/s, peaking at ~500kB/s.
- Data capacity starts at 1.3 GB and ends at 2.0 GB. Hardware
- compression, available with most of these drives, approximately
- doubles the capacity. Multi-drive tape library units can have 6
- drives in a single cabinet with automatic tape changing. Library
- capacities reach 240 GB.</para>
-
- <para>The DDS-3 standard now supports tape capacities up to 12GB (or
- 24GB compressed).</para>
-
- <para>4mm drives, like 8mm drives, use helical-scan. All the benefits
- and drawbacks of helical-scan apply to both 4mm and 8mm drives.</para>
-
- <para>Tapes should be retired from use after 2,000 passes or 100 full
- backups.</para>
- </sect2>
-
- <sect2 id="backups-tapebackups-8mm">
- <title>8mm (Exabyte)</title>
-
- <para>8mm tapes are the most common SCSI tape drives; they are the best
- choice of exchanging tapes. Nearly every site has an exabyte 2 GB 8mm
- tape drive. 8mm drives are reliable, convenient and quiet. Cartridges
- are inexpensive and small (4.8 x 3.3 x 0.6 inches; 122 x 84 x 15 mm).
- One downside of 8mm tape is relatively short head and tape life due to
- the high rate of relative motion of the tape across the heads.</para>
-
- <para>Data throughput ranges from ~250kB/s to ~500kB/s. Data sizes start
- at 300 MB and go up to 7 GB. Hardware compression, available with
- most of these drives, approximately doubles the capacity. These
- drives are available as single units or multi-drive tape libraries
- with 6 drives and 120 tapes in a single cabinet. Tapes are changed
- automatically by the unit. Library capacities reach 840+ GB.</para>
-
- <para>The Exabyte <quote>Mammoth</quote> model supports 12GB on one tape
- (24MB with compression) and costs approximately twice as much as
- conventional tape drives.</para>
-
- <para>Data is recorded onto the tape using helical-scan, the heads are
- positioned at an angle to the media (approximately 6 degrees). The
- tape wraps around 270 degrees of the spool that holds the heads. The
- spool spins while the tape slides over the spool. The result is a
- high density of data and closely packed tracks that angle across the
- tape from one edge to the other.</para>
- </sect2>
-
- <sect2 id="backups-tapebackups-qic">
- <title>QIC</title>
-
- <para>QIC-150 tapes and drives are, perhaps, the most common tape drive
- and media around. QIC tape drives are the least expensive "serious"
- backup drives. The downside is the cost of media. QIC tapes are
- expensive compared to 8mm or 4mm tapes, up to 5 times the price per GB
- data storage. But, if your needs can be satisfied with a half-dozen
- tapes, QIC may be the correct choice. QIC is the
- <emphasis>most</emphasis> common tape drive. Every site has a QIC
- drive of some density or another. Therein lies the rub, QIC has a
- large number of densities on physically similar (sometimes identical)
- tapes. QIC drives are not quiet. These drives audibly seek before
- they begin to record data and are clearly audible whenever reading,
- writing or seeking. QIC tapes measure (6 x 4 x 0.7 inches; 15.2 x
- 10.2 x 1.7 mm). <link
- linkend="backups-tapebackups-mini">Mini-cartridges</link>, which
- also use 1/4" wide tape are discussed separately. Tape libraries and
- changers are not available.</para>
-
- <para>Data throughput ranges from ~150kB/s to ~500kB/s. Data capacity
- ranges from 40 MB to 15 GB. Hardware compression is available on many
- of the newer QIC drives. QIC drives are less frequently installed;
- they are being supplanted by DAT drives.</para>
-
- <para>Data is recorded onto the tape in tracks. The tracks run along
- the long axis of the tape media from one end to the other. The number
- of tracks, and therefore the width of a track, varies with the tape's
- capacity. Most if not all newer drives provide backward-compatibility
- at least for reading (but often also for writing). QIC has a good
- reputation regarding the safety of the data (the mechanics are simpler
- and more robust than for helical scan drives).</para>
-
- <para>Tapes should be retired from use after 5,000 backups.</para>
- </sect2>
-
-<![ %not.published; [
-
- <sect2 id="backups-tapebackups-mini">
- <title>* Mini-Cartridge</title>
-
- <para></para>
- </sect2>
-
-]]>
-
- <sect2 id="backups-tapebackups-dlt">
- <title>DLT</title>
-
- <para>DLT has the fastest data transfer rate of all the drive types
- listed here. The 1/2" (12.5mm) tape is contained in a single spool
- cartridge (4 x 4 x 1 inches; 100 x 100 x 25 mm). The cartridge has a
- swinging gate along one entire side of the cartridge. The drive
- mechanism opens this gate to extract the tape leader. The tape leader
- has an oval hole in it which the drive uses to "hook" the tape. The
- take-up spool is located inside the tape drive. All the other tape
- cartridges listed here (9 track tapes are the only exception) have
- both the supply and take-up spools located inside the tape cartridge
- itself.</para>
-
- <para>Data throughput is approximately 1.5MB/s, three times the throughput of
- 4mm, 8mm, or QIC tape drives. Data capacities range from 10GB to 20GB
- for a single drive. Drives are available in both multi-tape changers
- and multi-tape, multi-drive tape libraries containing from 5 to 900
- tapes over 1 to 20 drives, providing from 50GB to 9TB of
- storage.</para>
-
- <para>With compression, DLT Type IV format supports up to 70GB
- capacity.</para>
-
- <para>Data is recorded onto the tape in tracks parallel to the direction
- of travel (just like QIC tapes). Two tracks are written at once.
- Read/write head lifetimes are relatively long; once the tape stops
- moving, there is no relative motion between the heads and the
- tape.</para>
- </sect2>
-
- <sect2>
- <title id="backups-tapebackups-ait">AIT</title>
-
- <para>AIT is a new format from Sony, and can hold up to 50GB (with
- compression) per tape. The tapes contain memory chips which retain an
- index of the tape's contents. This index can be rapidly read by the
- tape drive to determine the position of files on the tape, instead of
- the several minutes that would be required for other tapes. Software
- such as SAMS:Alexandria can operate forty or more AIT tape libraries,
- communicating directly with the tape's memory chip to display the
- contents on screen, determine what files where backed up to which
- tape, locate the correct tape, load it, and restore the data from the
- tape.</para>
-
- <para>Libraries like this cost in the region of $20,000, pricing them a
- little out of the hobbyist market.</para>
- </sect2>
-
- <sect2>
- <title>Using a New Tape for the First Time</title>
-
- <para>The first time that you try to read or write a new, completely
- blank tape, the operation will fail. The console messages should be
- similar to:</para>
-
- <screen>sa0(ncr1:4:0): NOT READY asc:4,1
-sa0(ncr1:4:0): Logical unit is in process of becoming ready</screen>
-
- <para>The tape does not contain an Identifier Block (block number 0).
- All QIC tape drives since the adoption of QIC-525 standard write an
- Identifier Block to the tape. There are two solutions:</para>
-
- <para><command>mt fsf 1</command> causes the tape drive to write an
- Identifier Block to the tape.</para>
-
- <para>Use the front panel button to eject the tape.</para>
-
- <para>Re-insert the tape and &man.dump.8; data to the tape.</para>
-
- <para>&man.dump.8; will report <literal>DUMP: End of tape
- detected</literal> and the console will show: <literal>HARDWARE
- FAILURE info:280 asc:80,96</literal></para>
-
- <para>rewind the tape using: <command>mt rewind</command></para>
-
- <para>Subsequent tape operations are successful.</para>
- </sect2>
- </sect1>
-
- <sect1 id="backup-programs">
- <title>Backup Programs</title>
-
- <para>The three major programs are
- &man.dump.8;,
- &man.tar.1;,
- and
- &man.cpio.1;.</para>
-
- <sect2>
- <title>Dump and Restore</title>
-
- <para>&man.dump.8; and &man.restore.8; are the traditional Unix backup
- programs. They operate on the drive as a collection of disk blocks,
- below the abstractions of files, links and directories that are
- created by the filesystems. &man.dump.8; backs up devices, entire
- filesystems, not parts of a filesystem and not directory trees that
- span more than one filesystem, using either soft links &man.ln.1; or
- mounting one filesystem onto another. &man.dump.8; does not write
- files and directories to tape, but rather writes the data blocks that
- are the building blocks of files and directories. &man.dump.8; has
- quirks that remain from its early days in Version 6 of ATT Unix (circa
- 1975). The default parameters are suitable for 9-track tapes (6250
- bpi), not the high-density media available today (up to 62,182 ftpi).
- These defaults must be overridden on the command line to utilize the
- capacity of current tape drives.</para>
-
- <para>&man.rdump.8; and &man.rrestore.8; backup data across the network
- to a tape drive attached to another computer. Both programs rely upon
- &man.rcmd.3; and &man.ruserok.3; to access the remote tape drive.
- Therefore, the user performing the backup must have
- <literal>rhosts</literal> access to the remote computer. The
- arguments to &man.rdump.8; and &man.rrestore.8; must suitable to use
- on the remote computer. (e.g. When <command>rdump</command>'ing from
- a FreeBSD computer to an Exabyte tape drive connected to a Sun called
- <hostid>komodo</hostid>, use: <command>/sbin/rdump 0dsbfu 54000 13000
- 126 komodo:/dev/nrsa8 /dev/rda0a 2>&amp;1</command>) Beware: there
- are security implications to allowing <literal>rhosts</literal>
- commands. Evaluate your situation carefully.</para>
- </sect2>
-
- <sect2>
- <title>Tar</title>
-
- <para>&man.tar.1; also dates back to Version 6 of ATT Unix (circa 1975).
- &man.tar.1; operates in cooperation with the filesystem; &man.tar.1;
- writes files and directories to tape. &man.tar.1; does not support the
- full range of options that are available from &man.cpio.1;, but
- &man.tar.1; does not require the unusual command pipeline that
- &man.cpio.1; uses.</para>
-
- <para>Most versions of &man.tar.1; do not support backups across the
- network. The GNU version of &man.tar.1;, which FreeBSD utilizes,
- supports remote devices using the same syntax as &man.rdump.8;. To
- &man.tar.1; to an Exabyte tape drive connected to a Sun called
- <hostid>komodo</hostid>, use: <command>/usr/bin/tar cf
- komodo:/dev/nrsa8 . 2>&amp;1</command>. For versions without remote
- device support, you can use a pipeline and &man.rsh.1; to send the
- data to a remote tape drive.</para>
-
- <screen>&prompt.root; <userinput>tar cf - . | rsh <replaceable>hostname</replaceable> dd of=<replaceable>tape-device</replaceable> obs=20b</userinput></screen>
-
- <para>If you're worried about the security of backing over a network
- you should use the &man.ssh.1; command instead of &man.rsh.1;.</para>
- </sect2>
-
- <sect2>
- <title>Cpio</title>
-
- <para>&man.cpio.1; is the original Unix file interchange tape program
- for magnetic media. &man.cpio.1; has options (among many others) to
- perform byte-swapping, write a number of different archives format,
- and pipe the data to other programs. This last feature makes
- &man.cpio.1; and excellent choice for installation media.
- &man.cpio.1; does not know how to walk the directory tree and a list
- of files must be provided through <filename>stdin</filename>.</para>
-
- <para>&man.cpio.1; does not support backups across the network. You can
- use a pipeline and &man.rsh.1; to send the data to a remote tape
- drive. (XXX add an example command)</para>
- </sect2>
-
- <sect2>
- <title>Pax</title>
-
- <para>&man.pax.1; is IEEE/POSIX's answer to &man.tar.1; and
- &man.cpio.1;. Over the years the various versions of &man.tar.1;
- and &man.cpio.1; have gotten slightly incompatible. So rather than
- fight it out to fully standardize them, POSIX created a new archive
- utility. &man.pax.1; attempts to read and write many of the various
- &man.cpio.1; and &man.tar.1; formats, plus new formats of its own.
- Its command set more resembles &man.cpio.1; than &man.tar.1;.</para>
- </sect2>
-
- <sect2 id="backups-programs-amanda">
- <title>Amanda</title>
-
- <para><ulink url="../ports/misc.html#amanda-2.4.0">Amanda</ulink>
- (Advanced Maryland Network Disk Archiver) is a client/server backup
- system, rather than a single program. An Amanda server will backup to
- a single tape drive any number of computers that have Amanda clients
- and network communications with the Amanda server. A common problem
- at locations with a number of large disks is the length of time
- required to backup to data directly to tape exceeds the amount of time
- available for the task. Amanda solves this problem. Amanda can use a
- "holding disk" to backup several filesystems at the same time. Amanda
- creates "archive sets": a group of tapes used over a period of time to
- create full backups of all the filesystems listed in Amanda's
- configuration file. The "archive set" also contains nightly
- incremental (or differential) backups of all the filesystems.
- Restoring a damaged filesystem requires the most recent full backup
- and the incremental backups.</para>
-
- <para>The configuration file provides fine control backups and the
- network traffic that Amanda generates. Amanda will use any of the
- above backup programs to write the data to tape. Amanda is available
- as either a port or a package, it is not installed by default.</para>
- </sect2>
-
- <sect2>
- <title>Do Nothing</title>
-
- <para><quote>Do nothing</quote> is not a computer program, but it is the
- most widely used backup strategy. There are no initial costs. There
- is no backup schedule to follow. Just say no. If something happens
- to your data, grin and bear it!</para>
-
- <para>If your time and your data is worth little to nothing, then
- <quote>Do nothing</quote> is the most suitable backup program for your
- computer. But beware, Unix is a useful tool, you may find that within
- six months you have a collection of files that are valuable to
- you.</para>
-
- <para><quote>Do nothing</quote> is the correct backup method for
- <filename>/usr/obj</filename> and other directory trees that can be
- exactly recreated by your computer. An example is the files that
- comprise these handbook pages-they have been generated from
- <acronym>SGML</acronym> input files. Creating backups of these
- <acronym>HTML</acronym> files is not necessary. The
- <acronym>SGML</acronym> source files are backed up regularly.</para>
- </sect2>
-
- <sect2>
- <title>Which Backup Program is Best?</title>
-
- <para>&man.dump.8; <emphasis>Period.</emphasis> Elizabeth D. Zwicky
- torture tested all the backup programs discussed here. The clear
- choice for preserving all your data and all the peculiarities of Unix
- filesystems is &man.dump.8;. Elizabeth created filesystems containing
- a large variety of unusual conditions (and some not so unusual ones)
- and tested each program by doing a backup and restore of that
- filesystems. The peculiarities included: files with holes, files with
- holes and a block of nulls, files with funny characters in their
- names, unreadable and unwritable files, devices, files that change
- size during the backup, files that are created/deleted during the
- backup and more. She presented the results at LISA V in Oct. 1991.
- See <ulink
- url="http://reality.sgi.com/zwicky_neu/testdump.doc.html">torture-testing
- Backup and Archive Programs</ulink>.</para>
- </sect2>
-
- <sect2>
- <title>Emergency Restore Procedure</title>
-
- <sect3>
- <title>Before the Disaster</title>
-
- <para>There are only four steps that you need to perform in
- preparation for any disaster that may occur.</para>
-
- <para>First, print the disklabel from each of your disks
- (<command>e.g. disklabel da0 | lpr</command>), your filesystem table
- (<filename>/etc/fstab</filename>) and all boot messages,
- two copies of
- each.</para>
-
- <para>Second, determine that the boot and fix-it floppies
- (<filename>boot.flp</filename> and <filename>fixit.flp</filename>)
- have all your devices. The easiest way to check is to reboot your
- machine with the boot floppy in the floppy drive and check the boot
- messages. If all your devices are listed and functional, skip on to
- step three.</para>
-
- <para>Otherwise, you have to create two custom bootable floppies which
- has a kernel that can mount your all of your disks and access your
- tape drive. These floppies must contain:
- &man.fdisk.8;, &man.disklabel.8;, &man.newfs.8;, &man.mount.8;, and
- whichever backup program you use. These programs must be statically
- linked. If you use &man.dump.8;, the floppy must contain
- &man.restore.8;.</para>
-
- <para>Third, create backup tapes regularly. Any changes that you make
- after your last backup may be irretrievably lost. Write-protect the
- backup tapes.</para>
-
- <para>Fourth, test the floppies (either <filename>boot.flp</filename>
- and <filename>fixit.flp</filename> or the two custom bootable
- floppies you made in step two.) and backup tapes. Make notes of the
- procedure. Store these notes with the bootable floppy, the
- printouts and the backup tapes. You will be so distraught when
- restoring that the notes may prevent you from destroying your backup
- tapes (How? In place of <command>tar xvf /dev/rsa0</command>, you
- might accidently type <command>tar cvf /dev/rsa0</command> and
- over-write your backup tape).</para>
-
- <para>For an added measure of security, make bootable floppies and two
- backup tapes each time. Store one of each at a remote location. A
- remote location is NOT the basement of the same office building. A
- number of firms in the World Trade Center learned this lesson the
- hard way. A remote location should be physically separated from
- your computers and disk drives by a significant distance.</para>
-
- <para>An example script for creating a bootable floppy:</para>
-
- <programlisting>
-<![ CDATA [#!/bin/sh
-#
-# create a restore floppy
-#
-# format the floppy
-#
-PATH=/bin:/sbin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin
-
-fdformat -q fd0
-if [ $? -ne 0 ]
-then
- echo "Bad floppy, please use a new one"
- exit 1
-fi
-
-# place boot blocks on the floppy
-#
-disklabel -w -B /dev/rfd0c fd1440
-
-#
-# newfs the one and only partition
-#
-newfs -t 2 -u 18 -l 1 -c 40 -i 5120 -m 5 -o space /dev/rfd0a
-
-#
-# mount the new floppy
-#
-mount /dev/fd0a /mnt
-
-#
-# create required directories
-#
-mkdir /mnt/dev
-mkdir /mnt/bin
-mkdir /mnt/sbin
-mkdir /mnt/etc
-mkdir /mnt/root
-mkdir /mnt/mnt # for the root partition
-mkdir /mnt/tmp
-mkdir /mnt/var
-
-#
-# populate the directories
-#
-if [ ! -x /sys/compile/MINI/kernel ]
-then
- cat << EOM
-The MINI kernel does not exist, please create one.
-Here is an example config file:
-#
-# MINI -- A kernel to get FreeBSD on onto a disk.
-#
-machine "i386"
-cpu "I486_CPU"
-ident MINI
-maxusers 5
-
-options INET # needed for _tcp _icmpstat _ipstat
- # _udpstat _tcpstat _udb
-options FFS #Berkeley Fast File System
-options FAT_CURSOR #block cursor in syscons or pccons
-options SCSI_DELAY=15 #Be pessimistic about Joe SCSI device
-options NCONS=2 #1 virtual consoles
-options USERCONFIG #Allow user configuration with -c XXX
-
-config kernel root on da0 swap on da0 and da1 dumps on da0
-
-controller isa0
-controller pci0
-
-controller fdc0 at isa? port "IO_FD1" bio irq 6 drq 2 vector fdintr
-disk fd0 at fdc0 drive 0
-
-controller ncr0
-
-controller scbus0
-
-device sc0 at isa? port "IO_KBD" tty irq 1 vector scintr
-device npx0 at isa? port "IO_NPX" irq 13 vector npxintr
-
-device da0
-device da1
-device da2
-
-device sa0
-
-pseudo-device loop # required by INET
-pseudo-device gzip # Exec gzipped a.out's
-EOM
- exit 1
-fi
-
-cp -f /sys/compile/MINI/kernel /mnt
-
-gzip -c -best /sbin/init > /mnt/sbin/init
-gzip -c -best /sbin/fsck > /mnt/sbin/fsck
-gzip -c -best /sbin/mount > /mnt/sbin/mount
-gzip -c -best /sbin/halt > /mnt/sbin/halt
-gzip -c -best /sbin/restore > /mnt/sbin/restore
-
-gzip -c -best /bin/sh > /mnt/bin/sh
-gzip -c -best /bin/sync > /mnt/bin/sync
-
-cp /root/.profile /mnt/root
-
-cp -f /dev/MAKEDEV /mnt/dev
-chmod 755 /mnt/dev/MAKEDEV
-
-chmod 500 /mnt/sbin/init
-chmod 555 /mnt/sbin/fsck /mnt/sbin/mount /mnt/sbin/halt
-chmod 555 /mnt/bin/sh /mnt/bin/sync
-chmod 6555 /mnt/sbin/restore
-
-#
-# create the devices nodes
-#
-cd /mnt/dev
-./MAKEDEV std
-./MAKEDEV da0
-./MAKEDEV da1
-./MAKEDEV da2
-./MAKEDEV sa0
-./MAKEDEV pty0
-cd /
-
-#
-# create minimum filesystem table
-#
-cat > /mnt/etc/fstab <<EOM
-/dev/fd0a / ufs rw 1 1
-EOM
-
-#
-# create minimum passwd file
-#
-cat > /mnt/etc/passwd <<EOM
-root:*:0:0:Charlie &:/root:/bin/sh
-EOM
-
-cat > /mnt/etc/master.passwd <<EOM
-root::0:0::0:0:Charlie &:/root:/bin/sh
-EOM
-
-chmod 600 /mnt/etc/master.passwd
-chmod 644 /mnt/etc/passwd
-/usr/sbin/pwd_mkdb -d/mnt/etc /mnt/etc/master.passwd
-
-#
-# umount the floppy and inform the user
-#
-/sbin/umount /mnt
-echo "The floppy has been unmounted and is now ready."]]></programlisting>
- </sect3>
-
- <sect3>
- <title>After the Disaster</title>
-
- <para>The key question is: did your hardware survive? You have been
- doing regular backups so there is no need to worry about the
- software.</para>
-
- <para>If the hardware has been damaged. First, replace those parts
- that have been damaged.</para>
-
- <para>If your hardware is okay, check your floppies. If you are using
- a custom boot floppy, boot single-user (type <literal>-s</literal>
- at the <prompt>boot:</prompt> prompt). Skip the following
- paragraph.</para>
-
- <para>If you are using the <filename>boot.flp</filename> and
- <filename>fixit.flp</filename> floppies, keep reading. Insert the
- <filename>boot.flp</filename> floppy in the first floppy drive and
- boot the computer. The original install menu will be displayed on
- the screen. Select the <literal>Fixit--Repair mode with CDROM or
- floppy.</literal> option. Insert the
- <filename>fixit.flp</filename> when prompted.
- <command>restore</command> and the other programs that you need are
- located in <filename>/mnt2/stand</filename>.</para>
-
- <para>Recover each filesystem separately.</para>
-
- <para>Try to &man.mount.8; (e.g. <command>mount /dev/da0a
- /mnt</command>) the root partition of your first disk. If the
- disklabel was damaged, use &man.disklabel.8; to re-partition and
- label the disk to match the label that your printed and saved. Use
- &man.newfs.8; to re-create the filesystems. Re-mount the root
- partition of the floppy read-write (<command>mount -u -o rw
- /mnt</command>). Use your backup program and backup tapes to
- recover the data for this filesystem (e.g. <command>restore vrf
- /dev/sa0</command>). Unmount the filesystem (e.g. <command>umount
- /mnt</command>) Repeat for each filesystem that was
- damaged.</para>
-
- <para>Once your system is running, backup your data onto new tapes.
- Whatever caused the crash or data loss may strike again. An another
- hour spent now, may save you from further distress later.</para>
- </sect3>
-
-<![ %not.published; [
-
- <sect3>
- <title>* I did not prepare for the Disaster, What Now?</title>
-
- <para></para>
- </sect3>
-]]>
-
- </sect2>
- </sect1>
-
- <sect1 id="backups-floppybackups">
- <title>What about Backups to Floppies?</title>
-
- <sect2 id="floppies-using">
- <title>Can I use floppies for backing up my data?</title>
-
- <para>Floppy disks are not really a suitable media for
- making backups as:</para>
-
- <itemizedlist>
- <listitem>
- <para>The media is unreliable, especially over long periods of
- time</para>
- </listitem>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>Backing up and restoring is very slow</para>
- </listitem>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>They have a very limited capacity (the days of backing up
- an entire hard disk onto a dozen or so floppies has long since
- passed).</para>
- </listitem>
- </itemizedlist>
-
- <para>However, if you have no other method of backing up your data then
- floppy disks are better than no backup at all.</para>
-
- <para>If you do have to use floppy disks then ensure that you use good
- quality ones. Floppies that have been lying around the office for a
- couple of years are a bad choice. Ideally use new ones from a
- reputable manufacturer.</para>
- </sect2>
-
- <sect2 id="floppies-creating">
- <title>So how do I backup my data to floppies?</title>
-
- <para>The best way to backup to floppy disk is to use
- &man.tar.1; with the <option>-M</option> (multi volume) option, which
- allows backups to span multiple floppies.</para>
-
- <para>To backup all the files in the current directory and sub-directory
- use this (as root):</para>
-
- <screen>&prompt.root; <userinput>tar Mcvf /dev/rfd0 *</userinput></screen>
-
- <para>When the first floppy is full &man.tar.1; will prompt you to
- insert the next volume (because &man.tar.1; is media independent it
- refers to volumes. In this context it means floppy disk)</para>
-
- <screen>Prepare volume #2 for /dev/rfd0 and hit return:</screen>
-
- <para>This is repeated (with the volume number incrementing) until all
- the specified files have been archived.</para>
- </sect2>
-
- <sect2 id="floppies-compress">
- <title>Can I compress my backups?</title>
-
- <para>Unfortunately, &man.tar.1; will not allow the
- <option>-z</option> option to be used for multi-volume archives.
- You could, of course, &man.gzip.1; all the files, &man.tar.1; them to
- the floppies, then &man.gunzip.1; the files again!</para>
- </sect2>
-
- <sect2 id="floppies-restoring">
- <title>How do I restore my backups?</title>
-
- <para>To restore the entire archive use:</para>
-
- <screen>&prompt.root; <userinput>tar Mxvf /dev/rfd0</userinput></screen>
-
- <para>To restore only specific files you can either start with the first
- floppy and use:</para>
-
- <screen>&prompt.root; <userinput>tar Mxvf /dev/rfd0 <replaceable>filename</replaceable></userinput></screen>
-
- <para>&man.tar.1; will prompt you to insert subsequent floppies until it
- finds the required file.</para>
-
- <para>Alternatively, if you know which floppy the file is on then you
- can simply insert that floppy and use the same command as above. Note
- that if the first file on the floppy is a continuation from the
- previous one then &man.tar.1; will warn you that it cannot restore it,
- even if you have not asked it to!</para>
- </sect2>
- </sect1>
-</chapter>
-
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