pax

[mehul_3]

Hi all,
I wants to copy my archive log file generated to DAT and I have been in wrong practising of copying it every time using fbackup but as all of you know, fbackup does not allow to append the same.
In short, can I use pax command to append it and is there any restriction as like in Tar?
(not allow to copy more than 2GB file at once)
Is it same as fbackup as per as speed is concerned?. It would be greatful to me if you send some example with syntax of pax

Rgds,
Mehul

[Bill Hassell]

pax is a combination program thatg can read and write cpio and tar formats, and yes, it has the same limitation for large files. No file larger than 2Gb will be saved. pax can append to an archive like tar. Because pax (and tar and cpio, etc) are single threaded programs, they can only read one file and write it to tape at a time. On a quiet system, this should not be a problem with performance. But on a busy system, the program may get delayed and cause tape respositioning, thus slowing the backup speed.

[Alzhy]

Mehul,

Peace and Clean Air.

Your best bet is to use tar or vxdump AND placing multiple files ("append") on your DAT tape. Or you can continue to use fbackup but tell fbackup to always append to the end of the last file on tape by using the non-rewind feature of the tape drive.

Example:

For fresh tape or newly-reused tape:

mount tape
do your first backup..
mt -f /dev/rmt/0mn rew
vxdump 0f /dev/rmt/0mn /oraarch
mt -f /dev/rmt/0mn rew

do your 2nd backup
mount tape (or if it is not mounted)
mt -f /dev/rmt/0mn asf 1
vxdump 9f /dev/rmt/0mn /oraarch
mt rewinf

Do your nth backup until DAT tape is exhausted - OF course you need to keep track of how much have you written to tape and how many tape-files (which will dictate your mt fsf's/asfs, etc..)


Hope this helps..