Backups
-Linux Backups
-Windows Backups
Restoring
-Linux
-Windows

Example of using the VXA drive on Fox to backup all local Linux files

Fox is backed up with VXA tapes, using two tapes per operating system (2 for Linux, 2 for Windows). This is done typically on a monthly basis, rotating the tapes so there is always a 2 month backup in existence. It is a good idea to keep the backup in a different spot than the computer, in case of fire / water damage. Perhaps in the future, an automated network backup scheme would be a good plan.

If the VXA drive isn't on, turn off the computer, and start it with the VXA drive turned on (scsi detection is performed at startup).

Backups

Linux Backups

Stick a tape into the drive.

v6 (62m) = 20 GB
V10 (107m) = 40 GB
V17 (170m) = 59 GB
V23 (230m) = 80 GB

Set blocksize to zero (unlimited), but ensure the tape has enough capacity to hold what you want to backup:

mt -f /dev/st0 setblk 0

Rewind the tape (if not rewound):

mt -f /dev/st0 rewind

Perform the backup. The "l" option means only backup local files (ie: not the windows partition), "z" means use gzip compression (unnecessary), "c" means to create an archive, "v" for verbose, and "f" for the device (/dev/st0). Type man tar to see help for this command:

tar -lcvf /dev/st0 /

NOTE: the VXA2 drive uses hardware compression, so software compression is not necessary. Therefore the "z" option is optional when writing to tape.

Eject the tape by pressing the button, or typing:

 mt -f /dev/st0 eject

These steps are all performed by the script /backup/backup.sh on Fox, which runs the following commands:

mt -f /dev/st0 setblk 0
tar -X /backup/exclude_list.txt -lzcvf /dev/st0 /

The file /backup/exclude_list.txt contains the following files and directories that should be excluded from the backup:

backup
dev
.dev
proc
sys
tmp

Windows Backups

Open the Backup program from the start menu (under system tools).

Choose to create a new backup, overwriting the existing data. Also change the option to compress the data.

click backup. Windows seems to take a lot longer than Linux for backing up the machine.

Restoring

Linux

This has been tested by extracting one file from the tape, 17 June 2004.

To obtain the listing of all files on tape, type:

tar -tvf /dev/st0

To extract all of the files, cd to the proper directory where you wish to extract the files (eg: /), and type:

tar -xvf /dev/st0

Alternatively, extract all files (or specific files) to a new directory (eg: cd to /tmp/tape_archive). This is less dangerous, becuase it won't overwrite existing files, and comparisons between current and backed up files can be made.

To extract only one file from a gzipped tape archive, type:

tar -xvf /dev/st0 fileOnTape.txt

Windows