Selectively backup based on specific date

Selectively backup based on specific date

[Michael Lueck]

Greetings,

I am looking for the correct xfsdump syntax to backup dirs/files newer than a certain date.

I have not found mention of such an option / capability within xfsdump. Hopefully there is a creative way to do the selective backup.

This is for use on Ubuntu 16.04.

Please advise.

I am thankful,

-- 
Michael Lueck
Lueck Data Systems
http://www.lueckdatasystems.com/

Re: Selectively backup based on specific date

[Hans-Peter Jansen]

Hi Michael,

On Donnerstag, 23. März 2017 09:21:56 Michael Lueck wrote:
> Greetings,
> 
> I am looking for the correct xfsdump syntax to backup dirs/files newer than
> a certain date.

xfsdump is a tool in the tradition of unix filesystem dump utilities.
Those always dump a full filesystem, and consequently, fully restore  
filesystems only.

> I have not found mention of such an option / capability within xfsdump.
> Hopefully there is a creative way to do the selective backup.

Using a linux derivate, there are plenty of more or less creative options to 
selectively backup/restore arbitrary file systems, but this is rather OT for 
the ML. 

Here are some of my favorite tools:
	rsync for ad hoc operations, 
	rsnapshot for regular file based backups, 
	borg for deduplicated backups (e.g. VM images).

They all perform nicely over LAN as well.

If you seek professional support in this regard, send an PM.

Cheers,
Pete

Re: Selectively backup based on specific date

[Michael Lueck]

Greetings Hans-Peter,

Hans-Peter Jansen wrote:
> Here are some of my favorite tools:
> 	rsync for ad hoc operations,


Excellent idea!

As this effort involves a slide replacement migration... OK to begin with the xfsrestore from a full backup. Then change the IP on the old server, put both servers on the wire, and rsync to catch up. 
Got it! (y)

I am thankful,

-- 
Michael Lueck
Lueck Data Systems
http://www.lueckdatasystems.com/

Re: Selectively backup based on specific date

[Dave Chinner]

On Thu, Mar 23, 2017 at 03:11:07PM +0100, Hans-Peter Jansen wrote:
> Hi Michael,
> 
> On Donnerstag, 23. März 2017 09:21:56 Michael Lueck wrote:
> > Greetings,
> > 
> > I am looking for the correct xfsdump syntax to backup dirs/files newer than
> > a certain date.
> 
> xfsdump is a tool in the tradition of unix filesystem dump utilities.
> Those always dump a full filesystem, and consequently, fully restore  
> filesystems only.

Not true. xfsdump/restore can backup directory subtrees just fine.
See, for example, the '-s pathname' option....

> > I have not found mention of such an option / capability within xfsdump.
> > Hopefully there is a creative way to do the selective backup.

xfsdump does "backup files changed since" operations via incremental
backups. i.e. if you want to backup only things changed since $DATE,
you first need to have run a dump that on $DATE, and you then do an
incremental dump which will contain only the changed files/dirs
since $DATE...

IOWs, xfsdump is designed to be used as part of a well-defined,
managed backup and disaster recovery strategy - it's not an ad-hoc
"copy random specification of files" tool.

> Using a linux derivate, there are plenty of more or less creative options to 
> selectively backup/restore arbitrary file systems, but this is rather OT for 
> the ML. 

The downside of these generic utilities is they are much slower than
xfsdump for large scale backup operations, they trash the
inode/dentry/page caches and they don't really support concurrent
operations needed to scale effectively. i.e.  if you need to dump
throughput of multiple GB/s, process tens/hundreds of millions of
files and/or drive multiple tape drives concurrently from a single
filesystem, then xfsdump is a much better option...

Cheers,

Dave.
-- 
Dave Chinner
david@fromorbit.com