Re: Clarification required about xfs_metadump and xfs_mdrestore

[murali krishna <murali.marimekala@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Darrick,

Thanks for the response.

Could you please clarify if there is any strong reason behind in stating to use xfs_metadump and xfs_mdrestore as just debugging tools in their respective man pages ?

We tried xfsdump, its backing up the rtdev partition (/dev/sda1) as well. I have around 450GB worth of recordings in my /dev/sda1 (rtdev).

I don't want to use any intermediate storage to backup all these data.

Yes, my aim is to backup the metadata (dont want to touch my rtdev) on /dev/sda2, reformat "/dev/sda2" Âwith crypt layer, restore metadata back on /dev/sda2.

At the end, I am expecting my rtdev untouched and should automatically appear after encrypting my /dev/sda2.

Note:

/dev/sda2- xfs partition

/dev/sda1 - xfs realtime partition

Thank you,

Murali

On Tue, Sep 27, 2016 at 1:04 PM, Darrick J. Wong <darrick.wong@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On Tue, Sep 27, 2016 at 09:49:11AM -0400, murali krishna wrote:
> Hi All,
>
> Got your email id from Nathan Scott.
>
> Could you please clarify the reasons behind stating below statement in
> xfs_metadump man page.
>
>
>
> *xfs_metadump should not be used for any purposes other than for
>Â debugging and reporting filesystem problems*
> Man page: http://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man8/xfs_metadump.8.html
>
> I am trying to encrypt my existing xfs drive (/dev/sda2) and would like to
> backup metadata using xfs_metadump and restore it back using xfs_mdrestore
> after encrypting my drive. In order to retain entire contents of my
> realtime partition (/dev/sda1), I need to perform this step.
>
> Can I use xfs_metadump to backup meta-data of xfs and restore it back
> successfully ?
> Why xfs_metadump should be specifically used as debugging tool ? Please
> clarify ?

Uh.... if your goal is to back up data, reformat the storage with a crypto
layer, and then restore the data, why not just use xfsdump/xfsrestore?
Your data will end up all nicely defragmented, too.

--D

>
> Thanks in Advance,
> Murali

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