Backing up ACL-protected VOBs

In addition to the standard requirements for VOB and view backup toolse, in order to backup VOB with ACLs, backup tools should have the ability to preserve file system ACLs on supported platforms (Windows, Linux, and Solaris). Different platforms have different tools that can preserve ACLs, and the same tool might have different abilities to back up with ACLs. The documentation for such tools should be checked carefully before using them.

VOB Backup with ACLs on local file system

Linux platforms. The cp command can preserve ACLs directly on some platforms, while on other platforms it needs special arguments to preserve ACLs, such as Linux, and Solaris. The most common argument for cp to preserve ACLs is -p; -a is the corresponding argument on Linux. Archive tools such as tar cannot preserve ACLs on some platforms. On other platforms, special arguments to tar should be specified for this purpose. -p, -U and --acls are different arguments of tar command on different platforms for preserving ACLs.

Windows platform. For Windows2000/XP/2003, xcopy /O /E can be used to backup directories and files with ACLs. For Windows Vista/Win7, there is another system tool robocopy /COPYALL /E that can preserve ACLs during backup. But note that xcopy or robocopy should be run as administrator on Windows Vista or later versions, so that it has permissions to process ACLs.
Table 1. VOB backup and restore commands by platform

VOB backup and restore commands by platform
Platform Copy Archive Restore from Archive
Windows xcopy cvob1.vbs cvob2.vbs /E /O /H
robocopy vob1.vbs vob2.vbs /COPYALL /E
Linux (RedHat only) cp -a -p -R vob1.vbs vob2.vbs tar --acls -cvf vob1.tar vob1.vbs/ tar xpvf vob1.tar
Solaris cp -p -R vob1.vbs vob2.vbs tar pcvf vob1.tar vob1.vbs tar xpvf vob1.tar

VOB backup with ACLs on NFSv4 file system

The NFSv4 network file system is only available on UNIX platforms—Windows does not support NFSv4. NFSv4 has different ACLs mechanism from local file system. Different platforms support different tools that can backup directories and files from/to NFSv4 file system. Backing up from NFSv4 file system is not supported by all platforms. You can backup/restore directly from the filer, if the filer vendor's software preserves ACLs. Or, if your VOB server platform does not preserve NFSv4 ACLs for backup/restore, you can back up the VOB without ACLs, then restore from a backup without ACLs and repair the VOB's container ACLs (see Restoring ACL-protected VOBs).
Note: Except on Solaris, the archive tool tar does not work well for the NFSv4 file system.