Re: tar or dump and restore commands on Compaq Tru64 UNIX or Unix - restore from tape?
Adam Price
in Message-ID: <sup2d.62206$D%.51290@attbi_s51>, chad pauli wrote:
> I am new at a company that has a Unix server and they have no documentation
> or anyhting. I am a average Unix user and I am trying to figure out a few
> things.
>
> They have a script I assume that runs a backup tape every night of just one
> area of the data files. No documentation or anything and no one knows what
> or how its being done. So no idea if they are using tar or dump. I am
> assuming their either are using a tar or dump command / script.
>
Don't assume that you have backups, make sure...
> I have been reading the MAN pages for the system to try to figure out how
> to format the line to do say a tar backup. I also need to know how to do
> a restore from a tar file assuming they are using tar. Or if they are
> using dump as I understand you can use a restore or rrestore if dump was
> used?
>
You could use grep on the script to find out if it uses dump or tar,
however if it is a tru64 system then you should be using vdump.
> If anyone is out there using some nice tar or dump commands or scripts I
> would love to study them and modify them for my use.
Don't write your own, use something from this list...
http://www.backupcentral.com/toc-free-backup-software.html
Saves lots of work and means that no-one else will get stuck in the same
hole you are in now.
> Also restore scripts.
> I want to make a tar and dump script to back up the entire system and not
> just the data files. I assuem its root that is everything to do a full
> disaster restore from.
Bare metal restore of a Tru64 V5 box is a tough task. You may be better to
do a clean install from media and a data recovery.
>
> I have a few examples and let me know if I am putting together the right
> command lines.
>
> The system is using
> Compaq Tru64 UNIX V5.1 (Rev. 732) (bisalpha) (pts/4)
I've added comp.unix.tru64 to the newsgroups line.
>
> Below is an example from the man pages and then below it are some of my
> thoughts of what I need to type to back up all the files in my examples on
> the system
>
<SNIP Tar based examples> Don't use Tar for backups.
>
>
> The server has the tape drive in it and its tape0 or device tape0, I have
> confirmed that.
>
> I am going to try to see if the company that set up and supports the
> application software on this is willing to help me, with out a cost.
This is a good plan.
>
> My main assignment is to simply test the tapes and figure out how to restore
> the date from the tapes back to the system and make documentation and or
> restore script to do so.
>
This is going to be a bit harder because you don't know what format the
tapes are in.
As I suggested above, if you find the original backup scripts you can use
grep to search for likely commands, however you could attack this from the
opposite direction. If you are able to find a window when the tape drive is
not in use then you could use dd to read the first few blocks of the tape
into a file and then use the 'file' command to read them.
> to restore to the origional file locations or to redirect them to another
> directory.
>
This part should be easy once we know how the backup was made.
> Also on this flavor of Unix, where or where most likely would one make and
> put the automated backup script and since it automatically backs up every
> night, what file, config file, process or task would be starting and
> running the backup if anyone can guess at that?
>
Professional backup software(eg Legato NSR) will have it's own scheduler
'home-grown' stuff would be scheduled out of cron. However there is another
possibility if the system is running a commercial database, many of them
have there own backup tools EG Oracle's RMAN.
Hope this helps some.
Adam