FABSYS_BACKUP-INJECT(1)

NAME
fabsys_backup-inject - Inject a volume dump blob into FABS

SYNOPSIS
fabsys backup-inject [--note <note>] <volume> <blob_filepath>

DESCRIPTION
The fabsys backup-inject command can be used to inject a volume dump blob into the FABS backup system.

Normally when a backup is run by fabs (for example, by scheduling with "fabsys_backup-start(1)"), fabs generates a volume dump blob by dumping the volume, and then processes that dump blob and stores it in fabs' database. But if you already have a dump blob that is generated by some other process, you may want fabs to re-use that dump blob instead of generating a new (identical) dump blob again, to avoid hitting the AFS volserver unnecessarily again. The fabsys backup-inject command can be used to re-use such dump blobs. Just provide the volume name and full path to a file containing a dump blob for that volume.

Running this command effectively schedules a backup run, but a backup run that only backs up the given volume, and only uses the given dump blob instead of dumping the volume from an AFS volserver. When this command completes, that backup is just scheduled, and has probably not completed yet. You can examine progress for it just like a normal backup run, by monitoring "fabsys_backup-status(1)".

While processing the given dump blob, fabs compares the metadata in the dump blob to the metadata reported by the actual volume it is for. If it looks like the provided dump blob is out of date, fabs will ignore the dump blob and not process it. This is because fabs records other volume-related metadata in the backup database that is not recorded in the dump blob, and so an outdated dump blob may not be consistent with the other information recorded by fabs. However, this is just a reasonable effort to avoid consistency issues; other unavoidable issues are noted in the CONSISTENCY WARNING section below.

OPTIONS

--note <note>
    This is the same as the --note option to "fabsys_backup-start(1)". See "fabsys_backup-start(1)" for more information.

CONSISTENCY WARNING
fabs cannot verify whether or not the dump given to fabsys backup-inject is correct, since fabs did not generate the dump. That is, while fabs can do some sanity checks against the metadata in the provided blob, there is no way to verify, for example, that the actual data in the blob is valid.

So, when using this command, you must trust that the dump blob you are giving to fabs is correct. If fabs is given incorrect data, the path translation functionality in fabs could be wrong, and fabs could possibly restore incorrect data.

PRIVILEGED REQUIRED
The issuer of this command must be able to read the FABS configuration (specifically, the database access information), typically in /etc/fabs/fabs.yaml.d/.

COPYRIGHT
Copyright (c) 2015, Sine Nomine Associates.

See the provided LICENSE file for licensing terms.