Description of problem: '/sbin/dump 0f somedumpfile /' does not back up files in /dev. On machines with LVM, it backed up the subdirectories "mapper" and "VolGroup00" and the device files related to VolGroup00 but not any other files, links, or subdirectories including those related to other volume groups. Ex: Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): dump-0.4b39-3.EL4.2 How reproducible: Same results on every RHEL 4 machine tried on, with or without LVM partitions. Steps to Reproduce: 1. /sbin/dump 0f somedumpfile / Actual results: restore -ivf dump_mapper_VolGroup00-LogVol00 Verify tape and initialize maps Input is from a local file/pipe Input block size is 32 Dump date: Fri Jun 2 02:02:02 2006 Dumped from: the epoch Level 0 dump of / on webster:/dev/mapper/VolGroup00-LogVol00 Label: / Extract directories from tape Initialize symbol table. restore > cd /dev restore > ls ./dev: 3227649 ./ 2 ../ 3260417 VolGroup00/ 3244033 mapper/ restore > ls -l * ./dev/VolGroup00: 3260417 ./ 3227649 ../ 3260545 LogVol00@ ./dev/mapper: 3244033 ./ 3244162 VolGroup00-LogVol00# 3227649 ../ 3244161 control# Expected results: /dev contains ~300 special files, links and subdirectories which should be in the dumpfile Additional info: dump on RHEL 3 (dump-0.4b37-1E) works as expected
Do you see the same while backing up unmounted filesystem?
I am unable test this scenario. All but one of my machines uses LVM for the / partition. To the best of my knowledge, I can not run dump on an unmounted LVM partition. (if there is a way to do this, let me know and I will be happy to try it on my test box). I do not have the luxury of taking my non-LVM root machine off-line at this time. Sorry.
Sorry, it's very insecure to backup mounted filesystems. I think the only way how to perform a safe backup is to umount the filesystem before the backup itself.