[SLL] How do I back up LVM Volumes to Tape...?

[Ariz Jacinto]

you don't have a problem actually. all you need to know is how to
create a filesystem on top of a logical volume:

http://tldp.org/HOWTO/LVM-HOWTO/recipethreescsi.html#AEN1085


from there, you can proceed with your normal way of doing tape
backups.

with regards to LVM snapshot(s), you might only want to use it
if you want to have a consistent file/dir data while doing a tape
dump since it gives you a way to avoid locked files (i.e. production
files that you can't dump to a tape because it is currently in
use or open, etc).

and you can't dump an LVM snapshot directly to tape since it's
not an image file (if that's what you're thinking). you still need to
mount the snapshot just like any volume/partition(/filesystem),
and from there, you can proceed with your normal tape backup
process.

one additional note. whenever you create a snapshot, file/dir
changes are being stored from the time the snapshot was
created up to the current state. thus, consuming disk space
(logically).


HTH,

Ariz Jacinto
Bellevue,WA
Palo Alto, CA



On Dec 6, 2007 7:58 PM, Todd Carrico <TCARRICO at sprintmail.com> wrote:

> All:
> We recently replaced our company server with a shiny new Dell which came
> preinstalled with SuSE Enterprise and LVMs.   We got everything all set
> and
> running, and now I cannot seem to find any way to back up our 200+GB
> partitions to our SCSI 400G tape drives.  All I can find is information on
> doing snapshots and using crude programs like tar that do not support
> incrementals and interactive restores.  I would really prefer to do dumps
> with varying backup levels to tape.  Can this be done with LVMs or do I
> need
> to rebuild the entire system with ext2/3 partitions.  I cannot imagine
> people are using LVM commercially without any means to backup to tape.  Is
>
> there a special version of dump for LVM?  Can I do snapshots to a hard
> partition (ext2/3) and then dump that to tape.  What am I missing? Please
> advise..
> If it matters, this is SUSE 10 Enterprise on a Dell 2900 with a Sony SCSI
> AIT4 tape drive.
>
> Thanks,
> Todd
> tcarrico at sprintmail.com
>
>