I am about to upgrade from Fedora Core 8 to Fedora Core 12. I typically do this by dumping the partitions into a file on another host and doing a completely new installation. Then use restore interactively to pull in the things I need.
I've seen various postings that dump only works on ext3 file systems and not ext4. Now I happen to have ext3 on my Fedora Core 8 machine so I assume I can dump OK.
Now will Fedora Core 12 default to ext4 file systems ?
I assume, if I do use ext4 file systems, the restore command will still be able to read the old ext3 dump file and restore the files into the ext4 file system with no problem.
Also, if I go with ext4 on Fedora Core 12 what backup command is available ?
I've only ever used dump (with amanda), I actually haven't been backing up this Fedora Core 8 machine because I considered it expendable and was willing to loose any data. However, I have collected some data that I'd prefer not to lose if I don't have to lose it. But, after I get Fedora Core 12 I am going to really use it and will want to back it up aggressively.
Thanks Chris Kottaridis
On Sat, 2010-04-17 at 17:07 -0600, Chris Kottaridis wrote:
I am about to upgrade from Fedora Core 8 to Fedora Core 12. I typically do this by dumping the partitions into a file on another host and doing a completely new installation. Then use restore interactively to pull in the things I need.
I've seen various postings that dump only works on ext3 file systems and not ext4. Now I happen to have ext3 on my Fedora Core 8 machine so I assume I can dump OK.
Now will Fedora Core 12 default to ext4 file systems ?
I assume, if I do use ext4 file systems, the restore command will still be able to read the old ext3 dump file and restore the files into the ext4 file system with no problem.
Also, if I go with ext4 on Fedora Core 12 what backup command is available ?
I've only ever used dump (with amanda), I actually haven't been backing up this Fedora Core 8 machine because I considered it expendable and was willing to loose any data. However, I have collected some data that I'd prefer not to lose if I don't have to lose it. But, after I get Fedora Core 12 I am going to really use it and will want to back it up aggressively.
Just use tar. Dump/restore is designed for fast backup and restoring of filesystem images. Among other things, this ties you to a specific filesystem type and partition size. Tar is more flexible and doesn't care what the filesystem is (within reason).
poc
On Sat, 2010-04-17 at 18:47 -0430, Patrick O'Callaghan wrote:
Just use tar. Dump/restore is designed for fast backup and restoring of filesystem images. Among other things, this ties you to a specific filesystem type and partition size. Tar is more flexible and doesn't care what the filesystem is (within reason).
One of the reasons I have used dump for this process is that if I run into something unexpected and all I want to do is get back to where I was, I can put things back as closely as possible. I realize I can get all the data back with tar also. But, dump has the inode numbers and file system specific details in it as well and I think a restore -r may even preserve the inodes, though I don't know for sure. So, generally I like to use dump to handle the catastrophic situation.
After some more poking around seems dump has a problem at the moment but the expectation is it will work with ext4 at some time.
http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=511651
I may stick with ext3 for now when I upgrade and then once dump gets sorted out I'll consider moving up to ext 4. I am not even sure what the difference is for now, I'll do some more research on ext4 before committing to it.
Thanks Chris Kottaridis
On Sat, 2010-04-17 at 19:59 -0600, Chris Kottaridis wrote:
On Sat, 2010-04-17 at 18:47 -0430, Patrick O'Callaghan wrote:
Just use tar. Dump/restore is designed for fast backup and restoring of filesystem images. Among other things, this ties you to a specific filesystem type and partition size. Tar is more flexible and doesn't care what the filesystem is (within reason).
One of the reasons I have used dump for this process is that if I run into something unexpected and all I want to do is get back to where I was, I can put things back as closely as possible. I realize I can get all the data back with tar also. But, dump has the inode numbers and file system specific details in it as well and I think a restore -r may even preserve the inodes, though I don't know for sure. So, generally I like to use dump to handle the catastrophic situation.
That's all very well, but your question wasn't about backup, it was about upgrading Fedora versions. Different scenario, different failure modes. Note that you can also dump the fs and then use tar for the transfer, if you feel nervous about losing anything.
poc
On Sat, 2010-04-17 at 19:59 -0600, Chris Kottaridis wrote:
One of the reasons I have used dump for this process is that if I run into something unexpected and all I want to do is get back to where I was, I can put things back as closely as possible.
Which would be the point of using dump & restore. Giving you the ability "restore" what you had, moments ago. A rather large "undo".
Which is a very different thing than merging two very different things (bits of old installations into a *new* OS installation). That isn't a "restoration," so I wouldn't expect restoring tools to be the best tools for the job.