[rescue] Block size and the single DD

[Kevin Loch]

Sheldon T. Hall wrote:
> So I've got this Solaris shell script that backs up my SGI machines to the
> spiffy new DLT tape drive on my SPARCclassic....
> 
> The heart of the script is this line:
> 
> 	rsh $MACHINE xfsdump -l 0 -F - $FS | dd of=$TAPE bs=$BS
> 
> I run that on the Sun with values like
> 
> 	MACHINE=blinky	# Indigo2 R4k
> 	FS=/dev/root
> 	TAPE=/dev/rmt/1cn	# DLT 2000xt on Sun SBUS card
> 	BS=1024k
> 
> Now, this works, but it's so slow that the DLT tape shoeshines itself into a
> lather.
> 

I thought the days of backing up directly to tape were long gone.
How about setting up a remote backup server with large
disks and the dlt?  Also, is there anything that xfsdump gives
you that you wouldn't get from gnu tar?

KL