Backup Problem

[BalasubramanianN]

Is there any tool other than dump for taking Entire OS backup in linux.because Linus Torvalds in a article told dump cant be trusted anymore

[Stuart Browne]

Many.

GNU's tar or cpio can do it, as can any of the Super Tar's (Cactus, BackupEdge etc.).

But it depends on what you're after. If you want a full backup solution, there are a number of both commercial and open source backup solutions (Amanda, BackupExec) available.

If you're wanting to make a rescue environment, you've got things like BackupEdge, as well as the now popular Mondo Rescue.

It all depends on what sort of backup you're after, what sort of media you're wanting to use, how much (if anything) you're willing to pay, and how it will all be managed.

[Ivan Ferreira]

You can safely use tar/star in Linux to backup the entire O.S.

The tools you want to use depends of your environment, for example, if you use ACLs on files or extended attributes as SELinux attributes, then you must use a tool that supports extended attributes and the right command options, star supports extended attrs and tar just in recent versions.

[BalasubramanianN]

mondo rescue is best choice