Jan, first of all thank you for your reply.

> On Wed, Jun 13, 2001 at 12:00:06PM +0200, Andrea Cerrito wrote:
> > Hi to all.
> > I'm trying to backup my volumes, and I set /vice/db/dumplist and
> > /vice/db/vicetab for my needs.
>
> First off, Coda's own backup tool first dumps all volume to the holding
> area(s) and then spools them to tape.

Auch!
Is there a way to just dumps the volume to the holding area without the need
for tape? I think in the "done-by-hand" way, isn't it?

> However, it looks like you have
> enough server diskspace to store up to 84GB of data, but the backup
> partition is about 8GB.

Yes, because I have 2 coda servers, so my data are always redundant. Then, I
thought that a gzipped dump of a volume for one day per week can be
sufficient.
And, for normal machines I'm using a tool to pipe data through tar to
another machine, which gzip it in real time and store the backup in a
dedicated area. So, I thought I can do it with coda too.

> In this case, using Amanda for the backups would actually be benificial,
> Amanda schedules the backups in such a way that the backup load is
> spread across the dumpcycle, and it will interleave pulling the data
> from the Coda servers with writing to tape.

But I have no tape on Coda servers. :( The only tape is on Solaris machine.

> > As you can see it's empty.
> > But when I try to start the backup:
> > =============================
> > [root_at_apu-a /root]# backup -t 135 /vice/db/dumplist /extra0
>
> Ah, I see the problem.
>
> The directory you specify at the end of the backup command line should
> be a different name. It will be filled with symlinks to the actual
> volumes in the backup partitions that are configured using vicetab.
> (Don't ask me why, it seems a bit redundant to me).

Mmmhhh... Curious :)

> So create an empty directory f.i. /backup that is not listed in vicetab,
> and run the backup as follows,
>
>     backup -t 135 /vice/db/dumplist /backup

Ok. I've created a /test directory, empty.
But:

1) in vicetab I have to set a not really directory?
2) if I use backup -t /vice/db/dumplist /test, all my backups got into it,
instead of /extra0! What's the need to set a dir in vicetab?

So, it will be correct to set in /vice/db/vicetab

apu-a   /imaginarydir backup

and to launch

backup -t /vice/db/dumplist /extra0
???

> > What I have to do?
> > Restart all servers? I don't want to stop them (it's a
> production machine):
> > is there a way to do a backup on a volume by hand?
>
> There should be no need to restart the servers. Yes, a volume can be
> backed up by hand using the following volutil commands.
>
>     volutil -h <servername> lock <volume-replica-id>
>     volutil -h <servername> backup <volume-replica-id>
>     volutil -h <servername> dump <backup-volume-id> [dumpfile]
>
> Where volume replica id is not the replicated group id that is listed in
> the dumplist file. Similarily the backup command creates a read-only
> snapshot of the volume state which is assigned it's own unique volume-id
> that is used to dump the volume. Typically I get these using
> 'volutil info'
>
> volutil -h srv info vm:u.jaharkes.mail | grep '^id ='
> id = d1000018, parentId = d1000018, cloneId = 0, backupId = d1000099, ...
>      ^^^^^^^^ volume-replica id            backup volume id ^^^^^^^^
> 					   (only valid after volutil
> 					   backup is run)

This is what I get doing it by hand (I think you forgot volutil -h server
unlock volume-replica id, isn't it?).

[root_at_apu-a /]# volutil -h apu-a lock 1000002
V_BindToServer: binding to host apu-a
Locked volume 1000002 had a VVV of (0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0)
[root_at_apu-a /]# volutil -h apu-a backup 1000002
V_BindToServer: binding to host apu-a
Backup (id = 1000003) of Volume 1000002 created
[root_at_apu-a /]#

The Backup (id = 1000003) is the same as volutil info.

id = 1000002, parentId = 1000002, cloneId = 0, backupId = 1000003,
restoredFromId = 0

But...

[root_at_apu-a /]# volutil -h apu-a dump 1000003 /extra0/codafs.rootvol.backup
V_BindToServer: binding to host apu-a

VolDump failed with Unknown RPC2 return code 200
[root_at_apu-a /]#

And I got the same error doing

[root_at_apu-a /]# backup -t 135 /vice/db/dumplist /test

Date: Wed 06/13/2001

15:55:14 Warning: the hostname of this server (apu-a.mgt.int) is not listed
in /vice/db/servers
Partition /codafs/mounts/server1: inodes in use: 0, total: 262144.
15:55:14 Partition /codafs/mounts/server1: 5688568K available (minfree=5%),
5550436K free.
15:55:14 Partition /extra0: 8305048K available (minfree=5%), 8264984K free.
15:55:14 VLDBLookup: VLDB_size unset. Calling VCheckVLDB()
15:55:14 7f000003: cloning
15:55:14        01000002->01000003
15:55:14        15000002->15000003
15:55:14 Dumping 7f000003.1000002 to
/extra0/13Jun2001/apu-a-7f000003.1000002 ...
15:55:14 VolDump (3ae44994) failed on 1000003 with Unknown RPC2 return code
200

15:55:14 Dumping 7f000003.15000002 to
/extra0/13Jun2001/apu-b-7f000003.15000002 ...
15:55:14 VolDump (1b7628fe) failed on 15000003 with Unknown RPC2 return code
200

15:55:14 Dump of volume 7f000003 failed!

15:55:14 MarkAncient of 7f000003 failed!

15:55:14
15:55:14 Attempting to retry any failed operations.
15:55:14
15:55:14 Dumping 7f000003.1000002 to
/extra0/13Jun2001/apu-a-7f000003.1000002 ...
15:55:14 VolDump (3ae44994) failed on 1000003 with Unknown RPC2 return code
200

15:55:14 Dumping 7f000003.15000002 to
/extra0/13Jun2001/apu-b-7f000003.15000002 ...
15:55:14 VolDump (1b7628fe) failed on 15000003 with Unknown RPC2 return code
200

15:55:14 Dump of volume 7f000003 failed again!

15:55:14 Successfully backed-up Volumes:
15:55:14
15:55:14 Only partially successfully backed-up Volumes:
15:55:14
15:55:14 Volumes that FAILED backup:
15:55:14 0x7f000003     (CC)    codafs.rootvol
15:55:14
15:55:14 Volumes that were NOT backed-up:
15:55:14 0x7f000004                     qmailfs.rootvol
15:55:14 0x7f000005                     apachefs.rootvol
15:55:14 Histogram of sizes of dump files

Good samples:     count = 0    mean = 0   stddev = 0   90%CI = 0

Bad samples:      underflow = 0    overflow = 0

15:55:14 Histogram of DataRates for transfer of dump files

Good samples:     count = 0    mean = 0   stddev = 0   90%CI = 0

Bad samples:      underflow = 0    overflow = 0

15:55:14

[root_at_apu-a /]#

What can be the problem?

Last: during tests I found two dirs /test/13Jun2001/apu-a and
/test/13Jun2001/apu-b. Doing a backup will do two copy of the same volume??

Thank again for your time, Jan
---
Cordiali saluti / Best regards
Andrea Cerrito
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Net.Admin @ Centro MultiMediale di Terni S.p.A.
P.zzale Bosco 3A
05100 Terni IT
Tel. +39 744 5441330
Fax. +39 744 5441372