e2image, ext3 and nightly backups.

[Daniel Pittman]

I have been looking at integrating the e2image tool into my nightly
backup routines for my systems, to improve the odds that I can get data
back if something disastrous happens to my file system.

I have a couple of questions about this, though, to work out if this is
actually worth doing.


Is e2image worth running if the file system is online and in use, under
the 2.6 series kernels, as part of a nightly backup run?

If there /is/ a risk of the data being incomplete or incorrect, is there
anything that can be done to make this less likely or to detect the
issue, other than adding LVM and using a snapshot to image from?


Does e2image capture all the information necessary to support ext3 file
systems?

It looks to capture everything except the journal content; will this
cause problems later if, say, the journal inode is destroyed but the
content isn't?  What if the journal inode /and/ content are destroyed?

Thanks for the advice,
       Daniel

-- 
Beware of all enterprises that require new clothes.
        -- Henry David Thoreau