[Gllug] Partitions

[tet at accucard.com]

>can dd a complete filesystem to a spare division on a spare disc in
>a fraction of the time it takes to backup to tape, remount and carry
>on working, and then backup the copy-filesystem to tape later at your
>leisure.

Yes, it may well be quicker than backing up the filesystem directly,
but it still takes *some* time, and the data on disk may well (and in
fact, probably will) change part way through the dd. So it may be
slightly more reliable [1] because of the minimized window for error,
but the basic problem still remains. The only real solution is to use
a filesystem that supports snapshotting / point-in-time copy / whatever
else marketing have decided to call it today. I'm not sure what options
we have under Linux that do that. freevxfs might do it (or real vxfs,
should that ever make it out of Veritas...), and perhaps reiserfs and
tux2 (when it finally materialises).

Tet

[1] Equally, it may even be *less* reliable, because dd won't guarantee
    filesystem integrity.

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