Choosing a Backup Tool

Choosing a Backup Tool

The IRIX system provides a variety of backup tools, and you should use whichever ones work best for you. If many users at your site are already familiar with one backup program, you may wish to use that program consistently. If there are workstations at your site from other manufacturers, you may wish to use a backup utility that is common to all the workstations.

IRIX provides the following utilities for backing up your data:

System Manager
bru(1M)
Backup(1M) and Restore(1M), which use bru
dump(1M) and restore(1M)
xfsdump(1M) and xfsrestore(1M) for XFS(TM) filesystems
tar(1M)
cpio(1M)
dd(1M)

Optional products for Silicon Graphics systems are also available. IRIS NetWorker(TM) is a scalable, full-featured data management tool for data backup and recovery. You can use IRIS NetWorker to back up data on high-end servers, or centrally manage backups for all your network workstations and file servers. See your Silicon Graphics sales representative for optional backup solutions.

Backup tools can be viewed as filesystem-oriented programs, like bru, Backup, and dump, or as file- and directory-oriented programs, like tar and cpio. While these utilities are not actually limited to one or the other, they are generally more convenient when used in this way. In addition, you can use dd(1) to read images exactly as they are written, with or without conversions. The dd command is useful to read data that is written in a format incompatible with the other backup utilities, but you would not normally use dd to create backups.

Table 1-1 summarizes the backup utilities available with IRIX.

Backup Utilities Summary
Utility Summary Description Reference
System Manager Graphical interface to bru utility. Most convenient and probably best tool if you are backing up only your own IRIX host. Personal System Administration Guide
bru Automatic file compression, space estimates, integrity checking. Prompts for additional media. May not be available on all hosts in a heterogeneous environment. bru(1) reference page and "bru"
Backup and Restore A command line "front end" to the bru utility. Backup(1) and Restore(1) reference pages and "Backup and Restore"
dump and restore Supports incremental backups and interactive restores. Standard UNIX backup utilities good in heterogeneous environments (but cannot back up XFS filesystems). dump(1M) and restore(1M) reference pages and "dump and restore"
xfsdump and xfsrestore Supports incremental backups, interactive restores, and interrupt recovery. Use instead of dump and restore on XFS filesystems. xfsdump(1M) and xfsrestore(1M) reference pages and "xfsdump and xfsrestore"
tar Most common UNIX backup utility historically and in current distribution, making it portable and thus widely used in very heterogeneous computer environments. tar(1) reference page and "tar"
cpio Flexible and standard UNIX command generally combined in command line pipes with other commands. cpio(1) reference page and "cpio"
dd Standard UNIX command to read input and write output with optional conversions. dd(1M) reference page and "dd"

Backup Utilities Summary
Utility	Summary Description	Reference
System Manager	Graphical interface to bru utility. Most convenient and probably best tool if you are backing up only your own IRIX host.	Personal System Administration Guide
bru	Automatic file compression, space estimates, integrity checking. Prompts for additional media. May not be available on all hosts in a heterogeneous environment.	bru(1) reference page and "bru"
Backup and Restore	A command line "front end" to the bru utility.	Backup(1) and Restore(1) reference pages and "Backup and Restore"
dump and restore	Supports incremental backups and interactive restores. Standard UNIX backup utilities good in heterogeneous environments (but cannot back up XFS filesystems).	dump(1M) and restore(1M) reference pages and "dump and restore"
xfsdump and xfsrestore	Supports incremental backups, interactive restores, and interrupt recovery. Use instead of dump and restore on XFS filesystems.	xfsdump(1M) and xfsrestore(1M) reference pages and "xfsdump and xfsrestore"
tar	Most common UNIX backup utility historically and in current distribution, making it portable and thus widely used in very heterogeneous computer environments.	tar(1) reference page and "tar"
cpio	Flexible and standard UNIX command generally combined in command line pipes with other commands.	cpio(1) reference page and "cpio"
dd	Standard UNIX command to read input and write output with optional conversions.	dd(1M) reference page and "dd"