LVM + reiserfs dump

[Bruno Cunha]

Hi all,

using LVM and reiserfs filesystem, need to make a dump to another fs, what's the best/most efficient way to do that ?
For example in Veritas volume manager/file system I use vxdump and vxrestore with good results.

Thanks

[Claudio Cilloni]

I know that LVM on linux can make snapshots of running logical volumes, and this could be useful to have a dump... but I never used this feature.
You can give a look at lvcreate man page.

ciao
Claudio

[Stuart Browne]

A dump to another filesystem? As in just a backup?

Then just back it up as you would normally.. Tar.. CPIO.. or 3rd party tool.

Or do you want to dump the entire LVM, as against individual filesystems on it?

Are you trying to move the LVM from one partition or disk to another one?

[Bruno Cunha]

Thanks for the replys.

The goal isn't to backup the filesystem, but to clone it and use it in another system.

I will take a look at lvcreate.

Thanks
Best Regards

[Bruno Cunha]

lvcreate doesn't work in this case. It can create only a snapshot of the original volume, and it's not possible to split the snapshot and use it in another system, and the snapshot is created in the same vg that the original volume. I need to create a copy of a file system to another vg, a lvm command will be good instead of dd or something like that.

Thanks

[Stuart Browne]

To another volume group on the same physical machine?

I think the LVM howto talks about how to do things like that.. I've never tried it to be honest.

If all else fails, just lvcreate etc. etc. on the new vg, and do a standard backup/data transfer.

[Bruno Cunha]

Reading some docs about reiserfs it doesn't have any dump utility, the only solution is gnu tar, the problem is speed, but it seems to be the only way :-(

Thanks

[Stuart Browne]

tar, cpio, backup edge, any standard backup tool tool do.

[Claudio Cilloni]

> the problem is speed

I'm thinking about a shell script that creates a snapshot of the source logical volume (with lvcreate), copy the snapshot's logical volume to the destination logical volume with dd (and this is really fast between different harddisks, and you can copy to a logical volume located on a another volume group) and then destroys the snapshot.
It seems feasible to me.

ciao,
Claudio