How to read psadump files in Windows?

[Mateo1041]

Ok, here's the deal. I've found I can use the Plesk "psadump" utility to create backups of my data. I've successfully used both of the following so far:

/usr/local/psa/bin/psadump -F -f - --nostop --tar-ignore-failed-read | split -b 1000m - dump

/usr/local/psa/bin/psadump -F -z -f - --nostop | gzip | split -b 1000m - backup

While I'm not sure what the difference is between "dump" and "backup", I do know one uses gzip.

I've then used PSFTP (http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/download.html) to securely download the dump/backup file to my local Windows hard-drive for off-site storage. However, so far I'm not able to open the file up and view what is inside. I've even tried Winzip which can open tar and gz files, but to no avail.

My goal with opening the "psadump" resulting file in Windows is so that I can verify the data is intact as a precaution. Am I doing something wrong? Can this file be opened in Windows and its contents examined? I do keep copies on the server as well, but feel I should have a weekly off-site copy just in case.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

- Matt.

 

[Cranky]

You can probably open them in wordpad as they're just text files with binary content pasted inline. The difference between 'dump' and 'backup' is just the filename psadump creates.

Which command are you using exactly? The second one you pasted is bad as the -z flag uses gzip anyway, so you can remove the "| gzip" bit from the middle.

 

[Mateo1041]

Ok, I will try verifying it with Windows the next time I'm able to pull another one to my machine. I did remove the gzip and instead used the "-z" flag instead, thanks.

I'm assuming something like this would work great in the case of an emergency. Do you know how easy it would be to restore a file or domain from this dump? Or would I somehow have to restore the entire thing first? What command would I use?

I've read the following will work:

cat dump.* | gzip -d | /usr/local/psa/bin/psarestore -m map_file -s shells_map_file -f -
vi map_file
vi shells_map_file
cat dump.* | gzip -d | /usr/local/psa/bin/psarestore -m map_file -s shells_map_file -f -

And it was taken from here: http://forums.ev1servers.net/showthread.php?s=&threadid=19421&highlight=backup

I'm assuming you run the same restore command twice?

Thanks again.

- Matt.

 

[Cranky]

Yeah, same command twice. First time it generates the ipmap and shellmap files for you, then you can edit the files and follow the instructions contained within them.

To restore an individual client (or a few clients, one per line in the file) use --clients-logins=/root/clientslist or a domain (or a few, one per line) use --domains-names=/root/domainslist

This is all covered in the manual.