<christoph.scheeder@s...> wrote:
> Hi,
> big question:
> 
> What dump do you use to backup that raw device?
> linux-dump?
> and  this device is used by infomix as a raw
data-device without an
> ext2 filesystem on it?
> yes?
> 

Yes, I'm using linux "dump".
I tried to mke2fs on the filesystem /dev/sda13 before
I build the informix raw file on it, therefore I still
can use "dumpe2fs" on that partition after the
informix raw file build.

> You won't be able to restore something meaningfull
from this dumps at all.
> 
> Linux dump is designed only for dumping ext2
filesystems.
> What you are trying is plainly asking for trouble at
restore-time.
> To get a valid backup of your database backing up
the raw device
> you will have to shut down the
database-server-process before
> saving the data. (If you don't do that you will miss
lots of data
> stored in the internal buffers of the process.)

Yap, in this case I will always bring down the
informix database process before I run "amdump".

> And then you need to take a raw image of the
partition with a tool
> like dd.
> Neither any version of dump nor tar will give you
> a correct backup of this data.
> A much safer way will be to let informix make a
database-export/
> dump to another disk and then backup this dump.

I'll consider ur suggestion.

> Paul Bijnens <paul.bijnens@x> wrote:
>
> I'm not an Informix user, but DUMP is meant for
Unix-filesystems IIRC,
> not Informix databases.  Are you sure the backups
contain useful
> data?  Did DUMP never complain?  Is the size of the
backupimage of the 
> device what you would expect (uncompressed -
compressed)?
> 

I'm not sure whether the backups contain useful data
or not. That's the reason why I need to restore back
and verify. DUMP never complain(with the condition
that AMANDA user belongs to group "disk" and
"informix" as the supplementary group).

> The way to backup a raw device with amanda is using
a GNUTAR-wrapper
> script that does a "dd" instead of gnutar when given
the device...
> (I assume, you could just as wel use DUMP wrapper
script and rename
> your dump program and replace it with this script.)
> 

May I know where can I find "GNUTAR-wrapper" and what
should I change in my amanda.conf in order to use the
script. I prefer not to rename linux "dump" command to
other name. Any other solutions ?

Thank Christoph & Paul



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