maximum size of tar files into DDS3 tape driver ?

[Yu-Sheng Guo]

I have a question about tar command, what's maximum size when I use tar command to archive files into DDS3 tape driver on RedHat Linux 8.0 ? I heart tar command can't archive over 1GB into DDS3 tape driver, is it ture ? or if it's ture, can any patches or GNU tar can resolve this limitation ? thanks.

[Steven E. Protter · Accepted solution]

This is not a function of the tape drive.

Its a function of the version of tar you are suing.

The tar that shipped with Red Hat 8 had an 8 GB limit on a file in the tar file.

That means no individual file can be bigger than 8 GB.

The overall size of the tar file created is not governed by that limit.

I'm not sure why this is happening, but it may be due to a limitation in temporary filespace on your system.

Is /var and /tmp low on space?

Clear space there and try again.

SEP

[Kodjo Agbenu]

Hi,

A DDS3 tape driver with hardware compression activated can store a maximum of :

=> 2GB on a 60-meter tape
=> 4GB on a 90-meter tape
=> 8GB on a 120-meter tape
=> 24GB on a 125-meter tape

In fact, this is theory.

In practice, it depends on the size of individual files. If you archive few large files (hundreds MB each), block headers consume less space on the tape media and you can reach 20GB on a DDS3 with 125m media.
However, with lots of small files, it can be half the theoretical size (12GB or less).

Hope this helps.

Good luck,

Kodjo

[Yu-Sheng Guo]

So, the maximum size limitation of tar command is 8GB ? and I should archive less than 8GB file into DDS3 tape driver with no any problem ?

[Mark Grant]

Well, actually, you can put more than one tar archive on the tape by using a no-rewind device and using mt fsf 1 after your first archive and then doing another one.

[Sunil Sharma_1]

Hi,

This limitation of Single file of more then 2 GB/8 GB whichever applies not the total size of archive.

in DDS3 i can take archive up to 24GB compressed only condition is that in that all files individually should be less then 8GB.

Sunil