Creating Archive Recovery Points

You can use the information stored in a recovery point to recover an archiving file system in the event of a disaster. Be sure to use SAM-QFS Manager or the samfsdump command periodically to create these recovery points.

When using the samfsdump command, note the following:

• The samfsdump command dumps file names and inode information, not data. That is, the dump file does not include the archive data stored in your file system. The dump file does include the inode and directory structure information necessary to quickly locate the data on your archive media. This information is necessary for recovering from a file system failure. For more information, see the samfsdump(1M) man page.

• You can use the -u option to the samfsdump command to back up metadata and file data for files that have not yet been archived. A samfsdump snapshot taken using the -u option can be very large. Unlike the ufsdump command, the samfsdump command does not have any tape management or estimation capability. You need to weigh the trade-offs of space and unarchived data when using the -u option. For more information about these commands, see the samfsdump(1M) and ufsdump(1M) man pages.

• If a failure occurs after file system initialization, you can use File System Manager or the samfsrestore command to restore data using the dump file.

Creating and Scheduling Recovery Point (samfsdump Command) From the Command Line

Creating a Recovery Point (samfsdump Command) From the Command Line

Go to the directory that contains the mount point for the file system and use the samfsdump command to write the output to a file system outside of the one that you are backing up.

For example:

# samfsdump -T -u -f /dumpster/dump.file

If you have a specific list of files that you would like to dump, you can use the -I include_file option. This only dumps the files and directories that are listed in the include_file. The include_file must have one relative or absolute path per line.

Scheduling the samfsdump Command Using cron

Make an entry in the root user's crontab file so that the cron daemon runs the samfsdump command periodically.

The following code example shows a cron entry.

0 0 * * * find /csd.directory/sam -type f -mtime +7 
-print| xargs -l1 rm -f; cd /sam; 
/opt/SUNWsamfs/sbin/samfsdump- f 
/csd.directory/sam/ANDAMPrsquo;date +%y%m%dANDAMPrsquo;

This example crontab entry uses a QFS file system mounted on /sam. Replace /csd.directory with an existing directory of your choice. This entry causes the commands to execute each day at midnight. First, the old dumps are renamed and a new dump is created in /csd.directory/sam/ yymmdd. After that, cron emails the samfsdump output to root.Troubleshooting.

If you have multiple QFS file systems, make similar crontab entries for each file system. Save each dump in a separate file.

Creating and Scheduling Recovery Points Using SAM-QFS Manager

How to Create a Recovery Point Using SAM-QFS Manager

1. From the Servers menu, select the server on which the file system that you want to administer is located.

   The File Systems Summary page is displayed.

2. Navigate to the Recovery Points node under File Browsing and Recovery in the navigation tree.
3. Select the file system for which you want to create a recovery point.
4. Click the Create Recovery Point Now button.

   The Take Recovery Point window is displayed.

5. In the Fully Qualified Recovery Point Name field, type the path and the name of the recovery point file that you want to create.
6. Click Submit.

   For more information on creating recovery points, see the SAM-QFS Manager online help.

How to Schedule Automatic Recovery Points Using SAM-QFS Manager

Scheduling a recovery point through the SAM-QFS Manager interface is the equivalent of creating a crontab(1) entry that automates the Sun SAM-QFS software process.

1. From the Servers menu, select the server on which the archiving file system that you want to administer is located.

   The File Systems Summary page is displayed.

2. Select the archiving file system for which you want to schedule a recovery point.
3. From the Operations menu, choose Schedule Recovery Points.

   The Schedule Recovery Points page is displayed.

4. Specify values on the Schedule Recovery Points page.

   For instructions on using this page, see the SAM-QFS Manager online help.

5. Click Save.