On 2010-07-20, at 13:34, Ms. Megan Larko wrote:> I hope this will be an easy one. To conserve steps in backing up the
> metadata extended attributes of a Lustre mdt, I am looking at using a
> newer version of tar combined with its --xattrs option. (Note:
> Previously I have used the mdt two-step back-up from the Lustre Manual
> and it has been successful.) If I can backup the extended attributes
> via tar so that I don''t have to issue both a getfattr and then a
tar
> command it would be convenient.
>
> I have GNU tar-1.23. I was trying a version of the command indicated
> in http://lists.lustre.org/pipermail/lustre-discuss/2009-June/010794.html
> which supplied the --xattrs argument to the tar command. It failed
> with "Unrecognized option --xattrs". Is there something I
need to
> specify to get tar to understand it is to back up extended attributes?
>
> Will this version of tar correctly obtain the extended attributes or
> should I be using lustre-tar tool instead?
I don''t think vanilla GNU tar 1.23 supports xattrs yet. The RHEL5
patched tar (on which the Lustre-patched tar is based) DOES support xattrs. You
only need the Lustre-patched tar if you are expecting xattrs restored to a
mounted lustre filesystem to preserve the striping. Otherwise, regular RHEL5
tar should be enough for a backup/restore of the MDT xattrs mounted with
"-t ldiskfs".
Cheers, Andreas
--
Andreas Dilger
Lustre Technical Lead
Oracle Corporation Canada Inc.