Clarification required about xfs_metadump and xfs_mdrestore

[murali krishna]

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"  with 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 at oracle.com>
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
> >  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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> > xfs at oss.sgi.com
> > http://oss.sgi.com/mailman/listinfo/xfs
>
>
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