topic Backup Fails in Operating System - Linux

Backup Fails

Kranti Mahmud — Sun, 24 May 2009 02:44:53 GMT

Hi,

I hav a DL 380 G4 with a DAT72 tape drive at 5300 Tape Array. The OS is RHEL-4. When I'm trying to take tar backup, I found the following erros:

[root@gpklvs2 /]# uname -a
Linux gpklvs2.grameenphone.net 2.6.9-42.0.2.ELsmp #1 SMP Thu Aug 17 18:00:32 EDT 2006 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux

[root@gpklvs2 /]# dmesg | grep tape
Attached scsi tape st0 at scsi1, channel 0, id 5, lun 0

[root@gpklvs2 /]# cd /home
[root@gpklvs2 home]# ll
total 40
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Apr 4 2007 cluster
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Jul 26 2006 diwakar
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 Jul 24 2006 kvsms-patch
drwx------ 2 root root 16384 Mar 9 2006 lost+found
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Apr 16 2006 netbackup
drwxrwxrwx 4 root root 4096 Oct 20 2008 tanvir
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 May 20 11:36 testbackup

[root@gpklvs2 home]# tar -czf /dev/st0 /home/testbackup
tar: Removing leading `/' from member names
tar: /dev/st0: Cannot open: Input/output error
tar: Error is not recoverable: exiting now
tar: Child returned status 2
tar: Error exit delayed from previous errors

[root@gpklvs2 home]# tar -tzf /dev/st0
tar: /dev/st0: Cannot open: Input/output error
tar: Error is not recoverable: exiting now
gzip: stdin: unexpected end of file
tar: Child returned status 2
tar: Error exit delayed from previous errors

[root@gpklvs2 home]# mt -f /dev/st0 status
SCSI 2 tape drive:
File number=-1, block number=-1, partition=0.
Tape block size 0 bytes. Density code 0x0 (default).
Soft error count since last status=0
General status bits on (50000):
DR_OPEN IM_REP_EN

Any suggestion from anyone?

Rgds-Kranti

Re: Backup Fails

Steven E. Protter — Sun, 24 May 2009 05:32:02 GMT

Shalom,

Open the hardware browser and see if the tape drive is detected.

Do a test read from a tape, you know has a valid archive on it.

Probably the tape drive is not detected or configured properly.

You may need drivers, but based on what I see the drive is much older than the OS. It could be a conflicting SCSI configuration or connecting the drive to a SCSI card that does not support the tape drive.

SEP

Re: Backup Fails

Kranti Mahmud — Sun, 24 May 2009 05:44:10 GMT

Hi SEP,

Great to got a repsonse from a BOSS like U.

BTW,

Open the hardware browser and see if the tape drive is detected.
=> The tape is detected perfectly from the OS.

Do a test read from a tape, you know has a valid archive on it.
=> Please clarify this point.

Probably the tape drive is not detected or configured properly.
=> The tape drive is configured @ 2007, and the customers taking backup perfectly.
This problem occurs abt 2 weeks ago.

Is it a HW issue or Driver issue?
Is there any other way to check the root cause of the backup failure?

Rgds-Kranti

Re: Backup Fails

Nido — Sun, 24 May 2009 09:11:10 GMT

Hi Kranti,

If you look at the error while listing the tape acrhive it says "gzip: stdin: unexpected end of file" which means something was written on the tape.

Quick way to check the tape read/write capability is to use another tape.

If you still get the errors, I would have question:
Is my tape drive require some kinda cleaning :-) ?? or need to place a Hardware call.

Its been while I've used tar and mt commands, please check the options for mt man page like: going to the end of tape data...

Let me know your findings.

Good Luck!!

Re: Backup Fails

Kranti Mahmud — Sun, 24 May 2009 09:25:58 GMT

Hi Nido,

Quick way to check the tape read/write capability is to use another tape.
=> I do check by using a fresh tape, but the error remains same.

If you still get the errors, I would have question:
Is my tape drive require some kinda cleaning :-) ?? or need to place a Hardware call.
==> I do clean the tape drive by a fresh cleaning cartridge, but nothing to be happy.

Its been while I've used tar and mt commands,
=>
# mt -f /dev/st0 status
SCSI 2 tape drive:
File number=-1, block number=-1, partition=0.
Tape block size 0 bytes. Density code 0x0 (default).
Soft error count since last status=0
General status bits on (50000):
DR_OPEN IM_REP_EN

# tar -tzf /dev/st0
tar: /dev/st0: Cannot open: Input/output error
tar: Error is not recoverable: exiting now

gzip: stdin: unexpected end of file
tar: Child returned status 2
tar: Error exit delayed from previous errors

Rgds-Kranti

Re: Backup Fails

Nido — Sun, 24 May 2009 10:07:39 GMT

Hello Kranti,

Is your tape drive writing at all?
Please use the following command on couple of smaller size files ( enable verbose mode):

tar -cvf /dev/st0

Good Luck!!!

Re: Backup Fails

Kranti Mahmud — Sun, 24 May 2009 10:16:34 GMT

Hi Nido,

# cd /home/testbackup/
[root@gpklvs2 testbackup]# ll
total 8
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1307 Apr 27 2006 hosts
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 19 May 20 11:36 test
[root@gpklvs2 testbackup]# more test
test of tape drive

# tar -cvf /dev/st0 /home/testbackup/
tar: Removing leading `/' from member names
tar: /dev/st0: Cannot open: Input/output error
tar: Error is not recoverable: exiting now
tar: Child returned status 2
tar: Error exit delayed from previous errors

Rgds-Kranti

Re: Backup Fails

Nuwan Alwis — Mon, 25 May 2009 02:24:07 GMT

Hi Kranti,
You can use dd to verify if this is a problem with your tape drive.

mt -f /dev/st0 erase
mt -f /dev/st0 rewind
dd if=/dev/st0 of=/dev/null bs=1024k

if this also does not works. It might be a problem with your tape drive.

Good Luck...!

Re: Backup Fails

Jeeshan — Mon, 25 May 2009 14:25:26 GMT

Have you tried using a cleaning tape? Changing scsi cables does it solved? did you check the character device of tape drive's device permissions?

If nothin goes fine with you, then certainly its a tape drive or the scsi controller issue.

Re: Backup Fails

Rob Leadbeater — Mon, 25 May 2009 15:30:34 GMT

Hi,

Going back to your original post, you say that the tape drive is connected to a 5300 Tape Array. I assume you mean a SmartArray controller of some form.

Whilst this can work, it is not recommended to connect a tape drive to a SmartArray controller. A standard SCSI controller would be much better.

That said, you may get some hints as to what is wrong from the output of "file /dev/st0".

And I know you've said that you've tried "fresh" cleaning tapes and data tapes, but did you take them out of the packaging yourself ? In my experience, cleaning tapes are rarely marked when they've been used, and they do have a limited life (20 cycles if memory serves...)

Cheers,

Rob

Re: Backup Fails

Kranti Mahmud — Tue, 26 May 2009 05:32:45 GMT

Hi Awis,

I do check the

mt -f /dev/st0 erase
mt -f /dev/st0 rewind

but the executin of these commands was unsucessful.

Hi Ahsan Bhai,

Have you tried using a cleaning tape?
->Yes
Changing scsi cables does it solved?
-> SCSI cable is not available at customer premisis.
Did you check the character device of tape drive's device permissions?-Yes

But, all these RND is fruitless.

Hi Rob,

Cleaning artridge was fresh, as I unpacked it by myself.

So, finally I can conclude that the Tape drive is faulty, ryt?

One more question, as per my observation, there is a juncton between two SCSI cable as the outgoing SCSI cable color (White) of the server and the incoming SCSI cable color (Black) of the Tape drive is different. Does it a issue?

Rgds-Kranti

Re: Backup Fails

Rob Leadbeater — Tue, 26 May 2009 05:42:23 GMT

Hi,

How exactly is the tape drive connected to the server ?

Internal or external ?

Cheers,

Rob

Re: Backup Fails

Kranti Mahmud — Tue, 26 May 2009 05:55:37 GMT

Hi Rob,

SmartArray controller has two tape drives, which is externally connected with two different servers. One is DL380 G4 in Linux (The suspected one), another is rp3440 in UNIX.

Rgds-Kranti