Today I have an internal Dell RD1000 drive for backup services with 1TB removable cartridges. Here is my process for getting the device up under Ubuntu 10.04 LTS Server and running the first backup.
Get the partition table of your device, (this particular device was located @ /dev/sda):
nmino@localhost:~$ sudo fdisk -l /dev/sda
Disk /dev/sda: 1000.2 GB, 1000200691712 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 121600 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 1 121601 976756736 7 HPFS/NTFS
Here we can see that the drive has all space allocated to a single NTFS volume.
Time to change that partition table to something we can use for backups.
Let’s delete the existing NTFS partition and create a new linux partition:
nmino@localhost:~$ sudo fdisk /dev/sda
WARNING: DOS-compatible mode is deprecated. It’s strongly recommended to
switch off the mode (command ‘c’) and change display units to
sectors (command ‘u’).
Command (m for help): d
Selected partition 1
Command (m for help): n
Command action
e extended
p primary partition (1-4)
p
Partition number (1-4): 1
First cylinder (1-121600, default 1): Using default value 1
Last cylinder, +cylinders or +size{K,M,G} (1-121600, default 121600):
Using default value 121600
Command (m for help): w
The partition table has been altered!
Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table.
Syncing disks.
nmino@localhost:~$
Now lets take a look at our newly created linux partition:
nmino@localhost:~$ sudo fdisk -l /dev/sda
Disk /dev/sda: 1000.2 GB, 1000200691712 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 121600 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 1 121600 976750976 83 Linux
nmino@localhost:~$
Now we can create our filesystem, (ext3 in this case):
nmino@localhost:~$ sudo mkfs.ext3 /dev/sda1
mke2fs 1.41.11 (14-Mar-2010)
Filesystem label=
OS type: Linux
Block size=4096 (log=2)
Fragment size=4096 (log=2)
Stride=0 blocks, Stripe width=0 blocks
61054976 inodes, 244187744 blocks
12209387 blocks (5.00%) reserved for the super user
First data block=0
Maximum filesystem blocks=4294967296
7453 block groups
32768 blocks per group, 32768 fragments per group
8192 inodes per group
Superblock backups stored on blocks:
32768, 98304, 163840, 229376, 294912, 819200, 884736, 1605632, 2654208,
4096000, 7962624, 11239424, 20480000, 23887872, 71663616, 78675968,
102400000, 214990848
Writing inode tables: done
Creating journal (32768 blocks): done
Writing superblocks and filesystem accounting information: done
This filesystem will be automatically checked every 33 mounts
or 180 days, whichever comes first. Use tune2fs -c or -i to override.
nmino@localhost:~$
The new linux partition is setup and ready to be mounted and written.
Time to mount the volume:
nmino@localhost:~$ sudo mkdir /mnt/RD1000
nmino@localhost:~$ sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/RD1000
Before going any further with the setup on this box, I am going to make my initial backup of the client data via rsync:
nmino@localhost:~$ sudo rsync -a -v –delete /shares/vol1/ /mnt/RD1000/
Once that is complete I will move on to the setup of the backup utility…