Linux and Tape Backups

[blu-Z8efaSeK1ezqlBn2x/YWAg at public.gmane.org (Edward Ned Harvey)]

> From: discuss-bounces-mNDKBlG2WHs at public.gmane.org [mailto:discuss-bounces-mNDKBlG2WHs at public.gmane.org] On
> Behalf Of Chris O'Connell
> 
> 1.  Does the mt -f /dev/st0 -erase check the tape for bad
> sectors/spots?
> 2.  Is there a way to list the contents of the ENTIRE tape?
> 3.  What is the best way to backup the entire disk (including SQL
> databases)?

I'm going to recommend looking into bacula.

As for databases ... You have to run something like "mysql dump" as a
pre-command of your backup script, to dump the database to a file, and then
backup the file.  Or else, stop the database daemon before running the
backup.

As long as the database is running and performing operations, you never know
what it has in ram, and you never know if you've got something consistent on
disk, or readable.