Re: Is xfsdump operation atomic?

[Nicolas.Kowalski@xxxxxxx]

On Tue, 23 Nov 2004, Michael Locher wrote:

> Hi

Hello.

> I wonder if xfsdump is an atomic operation and thus can be savely used on a
> live filesystem?

It is not atomic AFAIK.

> If not, what is the recommended way to backup a live XFS filesystem?

You may use LVM snapshots (untested):

- freeze the filesystem

- snapshot it

- unfreeze the filesystem

- xfsdump on the snapshot

- remove the snapshot


At work, we do not use LVM, but rsync to create a almost-snapshot on a 
backup-dedicated server. Once done, we backup this server with xfsdump.

Regards.

-- 
Nicolas