As a good old saying says – An Apple a Day keeps the Doctor away – is also applicable on having good OS backup that will always keep headaches lesser when the hard times come. Now comes ufsdump, a usefull command to help us backup our Solaris Operating System.
Based on the man pages of ufsdump(1M):
ufsdump backs up all files specified by files_to_dump (usually either a whole file system or files within a file sytem changed after a certain date) to magnetic tape, diskette, or disk file. The ufsdump command can only be used on unmounted file systems, or those mounted read-only. Attempting to dump a mounted, read-write file system might result in a system disruption or the inability to restore files from the dump. Consider using the fssnap(1M) command to create a file system snapshot if you need a point-in-time image of a file system that is mounted. If a filesystem was mounted with the logging option, it is strongly recommended that you run ufsdump as the root user. Running the command as a non-root user might result in the creation of an inconsistent dump.
Here are the steps for us to utilize this command given that our root (/) partition resides under c0t0d0s0:
It is recommennded to put our system on Single User Mode:
[email protected]# init -s or [email protected]# reboot -- -s
Check the partition for any inconsistencies:
[email protected]# fsck /dev/rdsk/c0t0d0s0
Insert the tape into the drive and verify:
[email protected]# mt -f /dev/rmt/X stat (where X is the drive number)
Back up the system:
[email protected]# ufsdump 0uf /dev/rmt/0n /