7.4 Exercises

Chapter 8. System Backup, Restores, and Availability

There are various commands you can use to make backups of systems. The following commands are the most common. A short description of each is given with a list of commands and flags in Table 30.

tar

The tar command manipulates archives by writing files to, or retrieving files from, an archive storage medium. The files used by the tar command are represented by the File parameter. If the File parameter refers to a directory, then that directory and, recursively, all files and directories within it are referenced as well.

cpio

The cpio command copies files into and out of archive storage and directories.

dd

The dd command reads the InFile parameter or standard input, does the specified conversions, then copies the converted data to the OutFile parameter or standard output. The input and output block size can be specified to take advantage of raw physical I/O.

mksysb

The mksysb command creates an installable image of the root volume group either in a file or onto a bootable tape.

backup

The backup command creates copies of your files on a backup medium, such as a magnetic tape or diskette. The copies are in one of the two backup formats: Either specific files backed up (using the -i flag), or the entire file system backed up by i-node

restore

The restore command reads archives created by the backup command and extracts the files stored on them. These archives can be in either file-name or file-system format.


Table 30: List of Backup Commands and Flags

8.1 The mksysb Command