tar and cpio commands problems

[Becke]

Hi Guys,

I'm trying to backup a data filesystem and I'm getting an error message while running the tar and cpio command.

Below are the commands that I have used and the error message.

tar -cvf /dev/rmt/3m /fsname
find . | cpio -ovcB > /fsname

The error message is,
error: tape hardware path 56/52.3.0.0: WARNING non terminated volume (verify ANSI compliance of media).

I have also included the full path name of the backup commands in the /etc/PATH, but no difference.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. And by the way i do assign points.

Thanks Guys,
Raf

[A. Clay Stephenson]

tar cvf /dev/rmt/3m /fsname
If /dev/rmt/3m is a valid device node this command should work.


find . | cpio -ovcB > /fsname
Wrong, I I can assume you are trying to do the equivalent to the tar command then:

find /fsname -print | cpio -ocvB > /dev/rmt/3m

I would prefer:
cd /fsname
find . -print | cpio -ocBv > /dev/rmt/3m

because non-absolute paths are much easier to restore to alternate destinations.

You should also not that both cpio and tar (unless patched) support a maximum filesize of 2GB for an individual file although the tar/cpio image itself may be much larger.

[Becke]

Hi Clay,

Thanks for your prompt response mate, I have actually tried the command tar cvf /dev/rmt/3m /fsname, however the error message is same.

I should have included the full error message in my original note and be more specific.

It actually starts backing up the data O.K but after 30seconds or so it aborts with an error message below, the filesystem I'm trying to backup is 1.9Gig, so its below 2Gig..

Here is an error message again.
Tar: end of tape
tape hardware path 56/52.3.0.0: WARNING non terminated volume (verify ANSI compliance of media).

Please advise

[MarkSyder]

The error message looks to me as if it's referring to the tape rather than the drive. Have you tried a different tape?

Forgive me if this bit is insulting, but is it the right sort of tape? E.g. you're not putting a DDS3 in a DDS2 drive?

Mark Syder (like the drink but spelt different)

[Becke]

Thanks guys for your response, sorry for the late reply as I was away from work. Mark I have put in the right tape and cleaned it many times.

It appears to be that the tape drive is faulty and I have logged a hardware call for that. Hopefully the problem will be resolved once we've replaced it.

Thanks for all the help guys. We have a great team here.

Regards,
Raf