Version 1.1
Author: Falko Timme <ft [at] falkotimme [dot] com>
Last edited 04/18/2007
This tutorial shows how you can create backups of LVM partitions with an LVM feature called LVM snapshots. An LVM snapshot is an exact copy of an LVM partition that has all the data from the LVM volume from the time the snapshot was created. The big advantage of LVM snapshots is that they can be used to greatly reduce the amount of time that your services/databases are down during backups because a snapshot is usually created in fractions of a second. After the snapshot has been created, you can back up the snapshot while your services and databases are in normal operation.
I will also show how to restore an LVM partition from a backup in an extra chapter at the end of this tutorial.