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Oracle Solaris Administration: Devices and File Systems     Oracle Solaris 11 Information Library
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Document Information

About This Book

1.  Managing Removable Media (Overview)

2.  Managing Removable Media (Tasks)

3.  Accessing Removable Media (Tasks)

4.  Writing CDs and DVDs (Tasks)

5.  Managing Devices (Overview/Tasks)

6.  Dynamically Configuring Devices (Tasks)

7.  Using USB Devices (Overview)

8.  Using USB Devices (Tasks)

9.  Using InfiniBand Devices (Overview/Tasks)

10.  Managing Disks (Overview)

11.  Administering Disks (Tasks)

12.  SPARC: Setting Up Disks (Tasks)

13.  x86: Setting Up Disks (Tasks)

14.  Configuring Storage Devices With COMSTAR

15.  Configuring and Managing the Oracle Solaris Internet Storage Name Service (iSNS)

16.  The format Utility (Reference)

17.  Managing File Systems (Overview)

18.  Creating and Mounting File Systems (Tasks)

19.  Configuring Additional Swap Space (Tasks)

20.  Copying Files and File Systems (Tasks)

Commands for Copying File Systems

Copying Directories Between File Systems (cpio Command)

How to Copy Directories Between File Systems (cpio)

Copying Files and File Systems to Tape

Copying Files to Tape (tar Command)

How to Copy Files to a Tape (tar)

How to List the Files on a Tape (tar)

How to Retrieve Files From a Tape (tar)

Copying Files to a Tape With the pax Command

How to Copy Files to a Tape (pax)

Copying Files to Tape With the cpio Command

How to Copy All Files in a Directory to a Tape (cpio)

How to List the Files on a Tape (cpio)

How to Retrieve All Files From a Tape (cpio)

How to Retrieve Specific Files From a Tape (cpio)

Copying Files to a Remote Tape Device

How to Copy Files to a Remote Tape Device (tar and dd)

How to Extract Files From a Remote Tape Device

21.  Managing Tape Drives (Tasks)

Index

Commands for Copying File Systems

When you want to copy or move individual files, portions of file systems, or complete file systems, you can use the procedures described in this chapter.

The following table describes various backup and restore commands that are available in the Oracle Solaris release. For enterprise environments, consider using a enterprise-level backup product. Information about enterprise-level backup products is available on the Oracle Technical Network.

Table 20-1 Summary of Various Backup Commands

Command Name
Aware of File System Boundaries?
Supports Multiple Volume Backups?
Physical or Logical Copy?
volcopy
Yes
Yes
Physical
tar
No
No
Logical
cpio
No
Yes
Logical
pax
Yes
Yes
Logical
dd
Yes
No
Physical
zfs send and zfs receive
Yes
N/A
Logical
zfs snapshot
Yes
N/A
Logical

The following table describes the advantages and disadvantages of some of these commands.

Table 20-2 Advantages and Disadvantages of tar, pax, and cpio Commands

Command
Function
Advantages
Disadvantages
tar
Use to copy files and directory subtrees to a single tape.
  • Available on most UNIX operating systems
  • Public domain versions are readily available

  • Is not aware of file system boundaries
  • Length of full path name cannot exceed 255 characters

  • Cannot be used to create multiple tape volumes

pax
Use to copy files, special files, or file systems that require multiple tape volumes. Or, use when you want to copy files to and from POSIX-compliant systems.
  • Better portability than the tar or cpio commands for POSIX-compliant systems
  • Multiple vendor support

Same disadvantages as the tar command, except that the pax command can create multiple tape volumes.
cpio
Use to copy files, special files, or file systems that require multiple tape volumes. Or, use when you want to copy files from systems running current Oracle Solaris releases systems to systems running older Solaris releases.
  • Packs data onto tape more efficiently than the tar command
  • Skips over any bad spots in a tape when restoring

  • Provides options for writing files with different header formats, such as ( tar, ustar, crc, odc, bar), for portability between different system types

  • Creates multiple tape volumes

The command syntax is more difficult than the tar or pax commands.

The following sections describes step-by-step instructions and examples of how to use these commands.