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Hello All,

I'm trying to figure out how to use fss for backup purposes.

The way I understand it should work is like this...

1. make the system as quiescent as possible.
2. create the snapshot.
3. bring databases, fileservers etc. back online.
4. dump the snapshot to tape.

... this gives me a minimum of downtime for backups.

After reading the man page for fssconfig, I'm a little confused...

"The *fssconfig* command configures file system snapshot pseudo disk
devices.  It will associate the file system snapshot disk _device_ with
a snapshot of _path_ allowing the latter to be accessed as though it
were a disk.  Data written through the _path_ will be saved in _backup_
which must not reside on the snapshotted file system.  If _backup_ is a
regular file, it will be created with length _size_.  Default size is
the size of _path_.  Data is saved to backup in units of _cluster_ bytes."

. What I get from this (and from my meagre knowledge of snapshot
concepts) is that the blocks in "path" are pointed to by some structure
in "device", and if one of those blocks becomes overwritten (in the
filesystem), it is first copied to a file in "backup", and the pointer
in the fss device is re-directed to that block in "backup".

I feel I'm missing something, though. Where it says,

"It will associate the file system snapshot disk `device' with a
snapshot of `path' allowing the latter [that's `path'] to be accessed as
though it were a disk."

... now isn't `path' a real path on the filesystem? i.e. the thing we're
taking the snap of? Do they mean "former" rather than "latter", so the
`device' can be accessed as a disk?

. Now that I have this snapshot, how do I back it up. It has no
disklabel or recognizable filesystem interface. How can I mount it to
access the data on the snapshot?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Louis




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