Archiving to data DVDs may now be done automatically using the DVD writing robots located at the X29 cyber cafe, the X25 beamline, and in the X12 office. dvdbackup now executes on all of the cafe systems running Linux. By default, the output goes to the burner closest to the computer from which the backup was started. See the OPTIONS section below for switches to modify the output behavior. Refer to the USAGE section for instructions on backing up SINGLE and MULTIPLE DIRECTORIES. The NOTES section contains some DOs and DON'Ts.
To make a backup of a SINGLE DIRECTORY, 'cd' to the directory you want to backup (e.g. 'cd /img02/data1/pxuser/test_data') and run: dvdbackup and wait ...
Any of the following variations will work:
(preferred method)
will back up '/my/full/path/to/data' and print '/my/full/path/to/data' on the DVD label.
OR:
from any directory:
will back up '/my/full/path/to/data' and print '/my/full/path/to/data' on the DVD label.
OR:
where 'data' is a subdirectory of '/my/full/path/to' will back up '/my/full/path/to/data' and print'/my/full/path/to/data' on the DVD label.
OR:
will back up '/my/full/path/to/data' and print '/my/full/path/to/data' on the DVD label. This is a shortcut IF you are IN the directory you want to backup. Note that the backticks around `pwd` are required.
To make a backup of MUTLIPLE DIRECTORIES, start from any directory and run:
Note that you MUST use the FULL PATH for ALL directories. The DVD label will show simply 'c l z', for this example. The full pathnames will be recorded on the DVDs.
A lock file, 'DVDbackup.lock' is created in the directory '/cfs/pxuser' on all workstations except those on X8C where they are created on '/media/x8c/pxuser/tmp'. This allows only one job at a time to be executed on a particular workstation. It contains the job name in the form of '<workstation>.<unix_time>' e.g. 'mocha.1189689774' and the date in human readable format. Note the job name in case of a lost DVD. This file is created when the job starts and is deleted when the data transfer is complete.
The ISO image is created as '<workstation>.<unix_time>-<disk_number>.img' where '<disk_number>' is the disk '<n>' out of '<N>' total disks for that job e.g. 'mocha.1189689774-2' is disk 2 of job 'mocha.1189689774'. This file name is needed for using the -l, --lost option. The image file '*.img' is deleted after the data transfer to the DVD burner is complete.
The file '<workstation>.<unix_time>-<disk_number>.lst' (e.g. 'mocha.1189689774-2.lst') contains the list of files to be backed up and is used by mkisofs to make the ISO 9660 image (see NOTES below). It is also used by the -l, --lost option.
The file '<workstation>.<unix_time>-<disk_number>.mrg' (e.g. 'mocha.1189689774-2.mrg') contains directories and disk numbers for the DVD burner.
The file '<workstation>.<unix_time>-<disk_number>.nwp' (e.g. 'mocha.1189689774-2.nwp') contains information for the DVD burner such as directory locations, number of copies, etc.
The '*.lst', '*.mrg', '*.nwp' files are deleted automatically every two weeks.
DO NOT modify a directory once you have started the backup: DO NOT rename, delete, or add files to the directory tree of the backup directory. Added files will NOT be backed up, and deleted or renamed files will cause mkisofs to fail rather ignominiously! mkisofs is reading from the '*.lst' file, so the files listed must be present.
The -l, --lost option can take the -n, --copies and the -b, --burner options. All other options are ignored because this function depends on files that already exit. You must be logged into the workstation from which the backup was originally initiated. So log into 'mocha' if you are trying to recover 'mocha.1189689774-2', for instance.
The -q -p (--quiet --print) options are probably best used together.
The -q -d (--quiet --dry-run) options together are a very useful sanity check.
Remember that -d, --dry-run option does not save any information.
The -v -p (--verbose --print) combination does not produce everything that is printed to terminal as if only the -v, --verbose switch were given. The full output is voluminous and largely meaningless. The list of file names is not printed explicitly with -p, --print because this list can become extremely large and might take a ream of paper to print.
-p, --print implies -q, --quiet so as to save a tree.
Users may not print more than 2 copies using the -n, --copies option. If you need more copies, ask a member of the staff for help to override this limit.