topic Re: fbackup fails in Operating System - HP-UX

fbackup fails

KathyK — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 15:44:22 GMT

I have three HP7xx series, running hpux10.2
full backup is done using sam and on all three (using 3 seperate external dat drives) the backup is failing with this message:

br_backup: Invoking fbackup. See /var/sam/log/br_log for details.
fbackup(1004): session begins on Wed Oct 8 23:11:00 2008
fbackup(1517): /netapp not backed up - 'n' option (NFS) not specified
fbackup(3205): WARNING: unable to read a volume header
fbackup(3024): writing volume 1 to the output file /dev/rmt/1mn
fbackup(9999): I/O error
fbackup(3120): write error on a record in the index
fbackup(3025): write error at the beginning of the volume
fbackup(3316): enter 'yes' when volume 1 is ready on /dev/rmt/1mn,
or 'no' to discontinue:
fbackup(3004): writer aborting
fbackup(1002): Backup did not complete : Reader or Writer process exit

the result of ioscan is:

# ioscan -fnC tape
Class I H/W Path Driver S/W State H/W Type Description
=======================================================================
tape 1 10/0/15/1.3.0 stape CLAIMED DEVICE HP C1537A
/dev/rmt/1m /dev/rmt/c3t3d0BEST
/dev/rmt/1mb /dev/rmt/c3t3d0BESTb
/dev/rmt/1mn /dev/rmt/c3t3d0BESTn
/dev/rmt/1mnb /dev/rmt/c3t3d0BESTnb

I have cleaned the drives, and reset them (unplug). and this still happens.

Any ideas?

Best regards

Kathy

Re: fbackup fails

Steven E. Protter — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 15:52:36 GMT

Shalom Kathy,

Ideas:
1) WRite tab on the tape in wrong position.
2) fbackup set to use wrong tape devic.
3) Backup size exceeds tape capacity.

SEP

Re: fbackup fails

James R. Ferguson — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 15:54:13 GMT

Hi Kathy:

Make sure that you haven't fogotten to write-enable the tape! Slide the tab on the tape.

Regards!

...JRF...

Re: fbackup fails

KathyK — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 15:59:53 GMT

thank you both for fast response. I have checked and double checked the write tab on the tape. even tried to tar to the drive and it worked. It seems strange that both tape drives are failing at the same time, but who knows.

Re: fbackup fails

James R. Ferguson — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 16:05:06 GMT

Hi (again) Kathy:

Do *not* use the no-rewind device! You want '/dev/rmt/1m' and *not* '/dev/rmt/1mn'.

Regards!

...JRF...

Re: fbackup fails

KathyK — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 16:22:16 GMT

Thanks James I will try that.

Re: fbackup fails

Vivek Bhatia — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 18:08:40 GMT

Hi Kathy,

Got the answer for you.
This is the same issue i have resolved few days back.

ISSUE:
Errors while running fbackup :
fbackup:
Starting interactive backup...
br_backup: Invoking fbackup. See /var/sam/log/br_log for details.
fbackup(1421): no history is available for graph file /var/sam/graphUEAa05069 (below level 0)
fbackup(1004): session begins on Thu May 29 09:47:30 2008
fbackup(3038): output file /dev/rmt/4m is not a valid device file for backup
fbackup(3019): would you like to enter a new output file?

Environment:

* Tape Drive: IBM ULT3580-TD4
* Model: L3000
* HP-UX Version 11.11

SOLUTION:

1. Trying to run tar on the tape Drive which works fine.
#tar -cvf /dev/rmt/4m /home/yetienne
a /home/yetienne/.cshrc 2 blocks
a /home/yetienne/.exrc 1 blocks
a /home/yetienne/.login 1 blocks
a /home/yetienne/.profile 1 blocks
a /home/yetienne/.sh_history 4 blocks
a /home/yetienne/upc444_cfn.dat 106 blocks
a /home/yetienne/sheila02/vg01.dr_mapfile 1 blocks
a /home/yetienne/sheila02/vg04.dr_mapfile 1 blocks

2. Able to successfully run mt commands?
mt -f /dev/rmt/4m status

4. Additional Information to check:

fbackup is quite different than dump backup tools, such as tar and cpio . They do not interact with tape drives, while fbackup relies on several tape functions for high performance. You'll need the latest patches:

If everything given above fine then run the below command and try to take a backup using fbackup

mt -f /dev/rmt/0m rewind

Regards
Vivek Bhatia

Re: fbackup fails

KathyK — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 18:15:09 GMT

Once again thank you all for your input. I think given the old system and hpux10.2 being obsolete, I have solved the problem for now. when I use

fbackup -0i / -f /dev/rmt/1mb

it seems to work. but the backup initiated from sam fails. so i'll stick to fbackup for now.

best regards,

Kathy