How to view the contents in tape?

[Livia]

(I've never used ignite and tape before, but now I have to use ignite.)

I have a tape which is believed having HPUX OS full-backup(by ignite) in it. But it was made loooooong time ago. Now nobody knows whether it contains the correct version for us or not.

Therefore, I should check the content in it.

But how to check the contents in a tape?
....I even cannot make sure whether the old tape is usable or not.

[Torsten.]

If created on a PA-RISC server do

# mt -f /dev/rmt/?mn rew
# mt -f /dev/rmt/?mn fsf 1
# tar -tvf /dev/rmt/?mn

? = number of the tape device

[Livia]

/dev/rmt> mt -f /dev/rmt/1mn rew
/dev/rmt/1mn: No such device or address


(ioscan -fn)
tape 1 1/0/0/3/1.1.0 stape CLAIMED DEVICE HP C5683A
/dev/rmt/1m /dev/rmt/1mnb /dev/rmt/c5t1d0BESTn /dev/rmt/c5t1d0DDSb
/dev/rmt/1mb /dev/rmt/c5t1d0BEST /dev/rmt/c5t1d0BESTnb /dev/rmt/c5t1d0DDSn
/dev/rmt/1mn /dev/rmt/c5t1d0BESTb /dev/rmt/c5t1d0DDS /dev/rmt/c5t1d0DDSnb


.....something wrong?

[Bill Hassell]

You won't be able to see anything useful as far as a version on the tape. The first file is a binary image of the kernel, suitable for booting from the tape -- it would be quite difficult to locate the HP-UX version, and impossible to locate the model of the computer from which it was created. That will be the most incompatible part of the Ignite tape. If a "loooooong" time ago is more than a few months, there are many, many incompatible features in the source system.

The second file is a tar or cpio backup of the origianl system but you won't be able to tell whether it is a multi-VG backup or just VG00.

There is no point in trying to restore a really old tape, especially if you do not know the model of the original system. The I/O cards are very different and require drivers that are likely not present in the original system. And the original system may be so old that it is only a 32bit OS and no new HP hardware has been sold in the last several years that will run the old 32bit kernel code.

So about the only use for this tape is make a table of contents from the second file on the tape and see if any of the data files might be useful.

[Avinash20]

If the OS is up and running then why dont you take the latest Ignite backup by inserting a new tape.

# make_tape_recovery -Av -a /dev/rmt/Xmn

You could find the Tape device via

# ioscan -funC tape