arbitrary disk name assignment affects dump/restore

["Dean Allen Provins, P. Geoph." <provinsd@telusplanet.net>]

Hello

I have used "dump" and "restore" to perform system backups for many years.
Since upgrading to Debian 6.x, I have not been able to obtain consistent and
reliable dumps for the following reason:

   Sometimes. my single fixed disk is labeled as /dev/sda, but

   At other times, it is labeled as /dev/sdb.

My "dump" script identifies a partition to dump by its name (i.e. /home)
or partition (i.e. /dev/sda3) depending on the dump level.

If /var/lib/dumpdates indicates that the last lower value dump was performed
on partition /dev/sda3, and the system has assigned that partition to
/dev/sda3, then all is well;  however if the system has
arbitrarily labeled that partition as /dev/sdb3, then "dump" thinks that no
lower level dump was ever performed on that partition, and it attempts to
perform a level 0 (i.e. full dump) dump and the tape in my tape drive is
insufficiently long to handle that amount of data.

This means that I must NOT rely on my automatic (crontab-based) dump
scripts, but interrogate the system manually, and if necessary, alter
/var/lib/dumpdates so that the script will run properly.

This is a REAL PAIN.

Is it possible that /etc/fstab, which now identifies the partitions on my
single fixed disc via UUID labels, is an unwilling participant in this
confusion?

Should I alter /dev/fstab to indicate the partitions as it was done before
(i.e. /dev/sda1 is /, /dev/sda3 is /home etc.)?

I look forward to your analysis and recommendation.

Dean

-- 
			   Dean Provins, P. Geoph.
		         dprovins@alumni.ucalgary.ca
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