Bacula-users

Re: [Bacula-users] Input on backing up a SAN

2012-11-14 10:21:17
Subject: Re: [Bacula-users] Input on backing up a SAN
From: Chris Adams <cmadams AT hiwaay DOT net>
To: bacula-users <Bacula-users AT lists.sourceforge DOT net>
Date: Wed, 14 Nov 2012 09:11:01 -0600
Once upon a time, David Palmer <dwpalmer AT cazenovia DOT edu> said:
> I am looking at ways to speed up our backups as our data continues to 
> grow. We currently have an equallogic group that stores much of our 
> information. One idea that we had for speeding up backups is to have a 
> file server that is separate from our production file servers and 
> mounting the data volumes as read only for backups. I am not planing to 
> use this for anything but file servers (ie sql / mail).
> 
> My question is has any one done this or something similar? Are there any 
> disadvantages that by configuring it this way for our file servers?

I back up a volume from an Equalogic SAN like this.  You do have to be
careful; you should limit visibility of the base volume to the active
server and the snapshot to the backup server, or "odd" things can
happen (depending on OS, filesystem, etc.).

You also need a way to create a consistent filesystem snapshot.  For
example, my volume is used by a Linux server and contains an LVM volume.
My snapshot script connects to the server and creates an LVM snapshot
first, connects to the SAN to create a SAN snapshot, and then removes
the LVM snapshot on the server.  The SAN snapshot volume is then mounted
on the backup server.

Without LVM, Linux also has the "fsfreeze" command to sync a filesystem
(flush all pending writes and hold new writes).  You could freeze the
FS, create the SAN snapshot, and unfreeze.

-- 
Chris Adams <cmadams AT hiwaay DOT net>
Systems and Network Administrator - HiWAAY Internet Services
I don't speak for anybody but myself - that's enough trouble.

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