topic Re: frecover on linux? in Operating System - HP-UX

frecover on linux?

GrayMatter_1 — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 00:59:56 GMT

I have some 4mm DDS2 tapes from our old HP-UX server that I need to recover. The problem is that they were created using fbackup and we don't have access to any HP-UX servers with a 4mm tape drive. Is there any program that I can use on linux that will read the fbackup formatted tape?

If not, is there a way to use dd on one of our linux boxes to create a file from the tape that frecover can read?

TIA!
Chris.

Re: frecover on linux?

skt_skt — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 01:12:56 GMT

fbackup/frecover is HP-UX specific tool and not supported on Linux. AFAIK, there is not a work around

Re: frecover on linux?

Dennis Handly — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 04:05:20 GMT

>is there a way to use dd on one of our linux boxes to create a file from the tape that frecover can read?

You would have to write a custom program.

fbackup/frecover allow you to specify a remote tape drive, machine:device. It mentions /usr/sbin/rmt or /etc/rmt. I don't know if linux has them?

You might be able to write a program to read the tape and then pipe it to frecover?

Re: frecover on linux?

GrayMatter_1 — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 16:09:24 GMT

Thanks for the replies. I will try the remote tape mount and let you know. Below is the output of one of my attempts using dd.

orion# mt -f /dev/st0 rewind
orion# mt -f /dev/st0 fsf
mt: /dev/st0: Input/output error
orion# mt -f /dev/st0 fsf
mt: /dev/st0: Input/output error
orion# dd if=/dev/st0 of=/tmp/orion/test2.tpe bs=1024k
dd: reading `/dev/st0': Input/output error
0+0 records in
0+0 records out
0 bytes (0 B) copied, 22.7909 seconds, 0.0 kB/s

Re: frecover on linux?

OldSchool — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 16:16:15 GMT

if i recall correctly, fbackup/frecover support "remote" tapes, in the form of
"machine:/dev/file".

If that is correct, then you *might* be able to access the tape drive on the linux box from hpux. I did find "rmt" on my linux installations, but I can't verify that it is compatible, nor do I know what, if any config is required.

you might review the man page and give it a shot.

Re: frecover on linux?

Steven E. Protter — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 16:32:21 GMT

Shalom,

To read your tapes on Linux, use a standard utility like pax or tar.

frecover has been deprecated in HP-UX and will not be available in the next release of HP-UX

SEP

Re: frecover on linux?

GrayMatter_1 — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 16:41:55 GMT

Thanks. I have read that fbackup is going away in later versions. I have tried pax on my linux box to read the tape, but it does not appear that pax can read an fbackup tape. See below.

orion# mt -f /dev/st0 rewind
orion# pax -r -f /dev/st0
pax: Failed read on archive volume 1
pax: Attempting to recover from an archive read failure.
pax: End of archive volume 1 reached

ATTENTION! pax archive volume change required.
/dev/st0 ready for archive tape volume: 1
Load the NEXT TAPE on the tape drive
Type "y" to continue, "." to quit pax, or "s" to switch to new device.
If you cannot change storage media, type "s"
Is the device ready and online? > .
Quitting pax!
pax: Sorry, unable to determine archive format.

Re: frecover on linux?

OldSchool — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 17:24:15 GMT

I wouldn't expect "pax" to work in this case. I can read/write cpio tapes and tar archives. I does *not* say anything about being able to read fbackup.

However, from the "man" pages of fbackup / frecover:

-f device

.....

A device on the remote machine can be specified in the form machine:device. frecover creates a server process, /usr/sbin/rmt, on the remote machine to access the tape device. If /usr/sbin/rmt does not exist on the remote system, frecover creates a server process from /etc/rmt on the remote machine to access the tape device. The pattern matching capability does not apply to remote devices. Only raw magnetic tapes can be remote devices. The fast search marks capability is not used when accessing remote DDS devices.

AND on my RedHat boxes, /sbin/rmt exists, so it may be as simple as creating the appropriate symbolic link....

Re: frecover on linux?

skt_skt — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 17:39:37 GMT

both fbakcup and frecover supports remote option as per manual.(when i tried last time myslf it did not work) But this need to be issued from an HP-UX box which is not possible in his case.

Re: frecover on linux?

OldSchool — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 18:06:08 GMT

GrayMatter said: "don't have access to any HP-UX servers with a 4mm tape drive."

Santosh: "issued from an HP-UX box which is not possible in his case."

While I agress the frecover command needs to be issued from HPUX, I don't see where he said that he didn't have one available, only that he didn't have one w/ the specific tape drive.

Re: frecover on linux?

GrayMatter_1 — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 18:19:56 GMT

@OldSchool -

You are correct. We have one HP-UX server with an Ultrium2 tape drive and I CAN'T move the 4mm tape from the linux box to the HP-UX box.

I have been playing with frecover to access a remote tape drive, but I am having trouble getting it to access the tape drive. But from what I have read, it sounds like this is what I need to get working.

Our linux server with the 4mm tape drive is running Debian Stable. When running interactive recovery from sam, or frecover from the command line, it complains that it can't connect to the tape drive when using :/dev/st0. When I get back to my desk, I will look for the rmt stuff.

Cheers!
GM

Re: frecover on linux?

OldSchool — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 19:27:01 GMT

man pages on linux for rmt state that it is usually started by rexec or rcmd, so if it doesn't work after making a symbolic link to it in the appropriate location, i'd check to insure that both of the above are enabled / working from the hp box to the linux box