Backing up a raw device

[Alan Casey]

Hi,
Does anyone know any tools/software that can be used to backup a raw device to tape?

[Jean-Louis Phelix]

Hi,

Use the basic dd ...

dd if=rawdevice of=tape bs=512k

Regards.

[Stefan Farrelly]

The only tool you should use to do this is dd. eg; dd if=/dev/vgxx/rlvolyy of=/dev/rmt/Xm bs=1024k

You need a blocksize from 64-1024k for best performance.

Be wary though, dd does no error checking and is not guaranteed to work. In my experience it works fine but you should take precautions like reading the tape back using dd to check its all redable, and do multiple backups to be safe!

[John Palmer]

Hi,

dd is the tool, use a reasonably large blocksize and specify the character raw device file.

To backup...

dd if=/dev/vg??/rlvol? of=/dev/rmt/0mn bs=64k

and to restore...

dd if=/dev/tmt/0mn of=/dev/vg??/rlvol? bs=64k

You might want to experiment with various block sizes and pick the one that runs the quickest.

Regards,
John

[Alan Casey]

thanks guys,

I was hoping for something more advanced than the dd option as I need to backup many raw devices, and be able to restore them individually and quickly. I know Veritas NetBackup can do raw-partitions, but I was hoping for a HP option.

[Stefan Farrelly · Accepted solution]

All High level backup solutions can also backup raw partitions;

Veritas Netbackup
Legato Networker
HP Omniback

so HP's Omniback is the high level backup software from HP.

[Robert-Jan Goossens]

Hi,

We use Legato-Networker.

Kind regards,

Robert-Jan.

ps. beleave veritas does have the option to use raw devices.