Xfsdump to a file

I'm a complete unix n00b, and I'm trying to use xfsdump to write to a file. I've tried going over the man page, and can't make heads or tails out of it to write to a file. I know I also need to use the -t and -v options, as well as -f to write to the file, but beyond that, I'm stumped. Can someone give me an example of how to use this?

Thanks.

Best,
J.

If you have no idea how to use it, why do you think you need it?
What are your requirements? Perhaps there are other solutions.

A quick scan of the man page suggests that you'd want something like:

Ok, I'm still confused, sorry. And apparently posted bad information. I was supposed to use xfsdump to create the dumpfile:

xfsdump -J -f /somefilepath/xfsdump_file /dev/sda6

and then use xfsrestore for the -t and -v options:

xfsrestore -t -v /xfsdump_file

In these commands, I don't understand what /dev/sda6 refers to. This is the xfs volume in this case, correct? And as for the xfsrestore, the version I just posted doesn't seem like a complete command, when compared to yours.

I'm sending in a report where xfsprogs isn't functioning under Ubuntu 12.1 as expected, and their forum has asked for this information. I've been trying to get the correct commands to send to them to complete the report.

In the xfsdump, the /dev/sda6 is the 'raw device' that contains the xfs file system you want to back up. The man pages suggest that just a file system name (not the underlying devece is valid so you may need to change that). Do a df -h or mount command and you should see it listed.

The -J on the xfsdump is theer to prevent any update to the dump inventory and is specified here as, in effect, this dump is going to be discarded.

With the xfsrestore command, the -t is a test operand, which means that the dump will be read and contents listed, but not applied back to the system. The man page suggests using -v silent as a parameter (presumably to cutdown on the output which will already be a list of files and directories).

Your restore command does not seem to be trying to read the same dump file as created by the dump - creatiing /somefilepath/xfsdump_file but reading from /xfsdump_file.

My suggestion would be:




As mentioned, you may need to change the /dev/sda6 parts to the actual mounted file system name.

Thanks so much, Simon

I'll definitely give it a go.

Best,
J.

Best of luck!

I'm sorry, I'm still having a bit of a problem. Here are my commands for the mountpoints:

mkdir /mnt/fp
mkdir /mnt/hr20
mount -t xfs -o rtdev=/dev/sda3 /dev/sda2 /mnt/fp
mount -t xfs -o rtdev=/dev/sdb3 /dev/sdb2 /mnt/hr20

With this as the starting point, which do I plug in here:

xfsdump -J -f /somefilepath/xfsdump_file /dev/sda6
xfsrestore -t -v silent -f /somefilepath/xfsdump_file /dev/sda6

?

Thanks again
J.

xfsdump will only dump a single file system at a time, so if you wish to dump both you'll need two commands.

Replace the /dev/sda6 in the commands with either /mnt/fp or /mnt/hr20

Ah, ok. Thanks again, Simon

And don't forget to chnage the name of the file to which you are dumping them, otherwise you will overwrite the first dump taken! I'd suggest a name that referenced the source filesystem

And the xfsrestore's would be like:

xfsrestore -t -v silent -f /Desktop/xfsdump_fp /mnt/fp
xfsrestore -t -v silent -f /Desktop/xfsdump_hr20 /mnt/hr20

?

Yep!

I'm sorry to keep bugging you, Simon

So now the group wants me to restore from the file to the volume. Would this be the command?

xfsrestore -J -f /Desktop/xfsrestore_hr20 /mnt/fp

?

When I try this, I get all kinds of errors.

These are the original commands:

mount -t xfs -o rtdev=/dev/sda3 /dev/sda2 /mnt/fp
mount -t xfs -o rtdev=/dev/sdb3 /dev/sdb2 /mnt/hr20
xfsdump -J - /mnt/hr20 | xfsrestore -J - /mnt/fp

That looks like you are attempting to dump one file system (/tmp/hr20) and then recover it to another file system (/mnt/fp) is that the intent?
What error messages are you getting?