Unix Backup and Recovery

Using dump and restore

While it is possible to use the standard dump and restore utilities as a bare-metal recovery mechanism, this method is significantly more difficult than the make_recovery method. However, it does allow for the use of remote backup devices, making it slightly easier to automate than make_recovery. It does require that you prepare some additional information before disaster strikes, though. At a minimum, the filesystem table should be recorded; a hardcopy of the /etc/fstab file works well in this regard. If logical volumes (LVs) are used, the volume group and LV information should be recorded as well, using the pvdisplay, vgdisplay, and lvdisplay commands, in addition to a listing of the contents of the volume group device directory, as shown next. This information should be updated with each level-0 dump and stored with the archive tapes. This procedure is the most labor intensive of those covered in this chapter and should be used only if no other option is available. For detailed instructions on the use of the dump and restore commands, refer to Chapter 3.

The interesting information displayed by pvdisplay is the VG Name which is used for the volume group and should be kept consistent in all following commands that reference the volume group, though the /dev prefix is not required unless explicitly specified.

# pvdisplay /dev/dsk/c0t6d0 --- Physical volumes --- PV Name /dev/dsk/c0t3d0 VG Name /dev/vg00 PV Status available Allocatable yes VGDA 2 Cur LV 8 ...