topic Re: tar: ./undotbs01.dbf: HELP - extract write error in Operating System - HP-UX

tar: ./undotbs01.dbf: HELP - extract write error

alex1982 — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 11:12:07 GMT

Hi,
i am extracting information from tape using the following command:
tar -xvf /dev/rmt/0mn .

I am receiving the following result:

x ./system01.dbf, 1405100032 bytes, 2744336 tape blocks
x ./undotbs01.dbf, 5882519552 bytes, 11489296 tape blocks
tar: ./undotbs01.dbf: HELP - extract write error

Can you help me ?
What does this message mean?
Can i still recover from tape ?

Re: tar: ./undotbs01.dbf: HELP - extract write error

Bart Paulusse — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 11:27:35 GMT

Hi Alex,

can it be that the filesystem you are writing to is full? The error is 'extract WRITE error' not 'extract read error'.

Regards,
Bart

Re: tar: ./undotbs01.dbf: HELP - extract write error

alex1982 — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 11:46:51 GMT

No, it is not full.It has plenty of space.

Re: tar: ./undotbs01.dbf: HELP - extract write error

Bart Paulusse — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 11:57:06 GMT

How was the tape written?
Did you use any special options.
Try to set blocking factor to 1. This will reduce read speed but it will prevent the error message if tape was written using a different blocking factor.

tar -b 1 -xvf /dev/rmt0mn .

Re: tar: ./undotbs01.dbf: HELP - extract write error

alex1982 — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 12:09:36 GMT

the tape was written using the following command.
cd /u02/MyDir
tar -cvf /dev/rmt/0mn .

The tape was written successfully and no error message was generated.
It extracts the first file of the directory successfully.
Can it be that the second file it is trying to extract is more than 2G or it has nothing to do with that?

Re: tar: ./undotbs01.dbf: HELP - extract write error

James R. Ferguson — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 12:19:46 GMT

Hi:

> Can it be that the second file it is trying to extract is more than 2G or it has nothing to do with that?

Does the filesystem into which you are extracting support 'largefiles'? Examine with:

# mkfs -F vxfs -m /dev/vgNN/lvolX

(or):

# fsadm /mountpoint

Regards!

...JRF...

Re: tar: ./undotbs01.dbf: HELP - extract write error

alex1982 — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 12:28:05 GMT

This is the result of the fsadm command:

fsadm: /etc/default/fs is used for determining the file system type
nolargefiles

Re: tar: ./undotbs01.dbf: HELP - extract write error

OldSchool — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 12:30:27 GMT

"Can it be that the second file it is trying to extract is more than 2G or it has nothing to do with that?"

Certainly 2gig limits can come in to play w/ some unpatched versions of tar, or with destination filesystems that aren't largefile enabled.

of course knowing the source OS (and destination OS if different) wouldn't hurt either. and "pax" may let you extract this as well

Re: tar: ./undotbs01.dbf: HELP - extract write error

OldSchool — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 12:32:15 GMT

ok, so you're recovering to a different filesystem than the source, and it doesn't have largefiles enabled. Enable them and it should work....

Re: tar: ./undotbs01.dbf: HELP - extract write error

Bart Paulusse — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 12:33:29 GMT

nolargefiles means that the filesize limit is 2G.
You can change this with:
fsadm -F -o largefiles

regards,
Bart

Re: tar: ./undotbs01.dbf: HELP - extract write error

James R. Ferguson — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 12:35:11 GMT

Hi:

> nolargefiles

So, do you believe that your 'tar' archive may contain files larger than 2GB. If so, you need to enable 'largefiles' for the filesystem into which you want to extract them.

To do this, do:

# fsadm -F vxfs -o largefiles /dev/vgNN/rlvolX

Regards!

...JRF...

Re: tar: ./undotbs01.dbf: HELP - extract write error

OldSchool — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 12:45:04 GMT

JRF: "So, do you believe that your 'tar' archive may contain files larger than 2GB. If so, you need to enable 'largefiles' for the filesystem into which you want to extract them."

x /undotbs01.dbf, 5882519552 bytes, 11489296 tape blocks
tar: ./undotbs01.dbf: HELP - extract write error

Appears to be ~5.5 gig

Re: tar: ./undotbs01.dbf: HELP - extract write error

James R. Ferguson — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 13:06:33 GMT

Hi (again):

> OldSchool: Appears to be ~5.5 gig

Yup, I didn't even pay attention to that! Dummy-me - ENOCOFFEE when I said that :-))

Regards!

...JRF...

Re: tar: ./undotbs01.dbf: HELP - extract write error

alex1982 — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 13:15:14 GMT

Thanks to all.
Yes, that was the reason.
I changed the filesystem to allow large files and it is extracting now.
Thank you.