Have you ever use btcreate to create boot tape

[malay boy]

Hi Guru,
It's me again.Well I'm have to take care of 5 new Tru64 machine which don;t have sys admin for the past 1 year ... headache :-(

Simple question:
I looking same utility like HPUX call ignite to create a boot tape.I stumble a btcreate in Tru64 5.1A . Is this command workable or any body have try it.

If yes,if the system failed how to boot from tape.

Thanks
mB

(Tru64 Ignorant)

[Ralf Puchner · Accepted solution]

have a look to the man-page of btcreate and the admin guide of Tru64.

This question was asked several times here in the forum, please check older threads and then post such questions.

A short introduction:
>>> show dev
(check for entries like mka)
>>> boot -fl "nc" mka123
(mka123 is your tape device)

a menu appears and you must decide howto restore. Be sure your tape is supported (have a look into the Software Product Description on www.tru64unix.compaq.com -> documentation -> software product description (spd))

[Meyer Christian]

Be aware that the right sentence is :

>>> init
>>> show dev
>>> boot -fl "nc" MKA500

extracted from btextract man page

Christian

[malay boy]

Thanks everbody.

The reason I asked is because from our vendor he says that nobody used btcreate ( which I don't believe ) even the big company.

Actaully I have read the manual a few time but want to make sure I read correctly ( as I'm not English speaking native ).

I appreciate your patience over this Tru64 ignoreant guy.

regards
mB

[Ralf Puchner]

christian,

"init" is very dangerous if machine is configured for autoboot. "init" will also initialize the device reset procedure which needs a lot of time on big machines.

[Pieter 't Hart]

here is a sample of the script i use
to create a bootable tape

typeset -u HST=`hostname -s`
/usr/sys/bin/btcreate -d /tmp -a /bvh/etc/empty -k /usr/sys/conf/$HST -m mfs -s /usr/lib/sabt/etc/fslist -t tape0_d1

in addition it needs three more files

1) the file "/usr/lib/sabt/etc/fslist" wich lists the filesystems to include on the bootable tape. contents are like :

root_domain#root / advfs
usr_domain#usr /usr advfs
usr_domain#var /var advfs

2) "/bvh/etc/empty" for me an empty file
originaly a file wich specifies files to include in the miniroot-filesystem (add_list file)

3) "/usr/lib/sabt/etc/custom_disklabel_file"
a file with the disklabels to recreste te partitions with their current size instead of the defaults. (els you can customize the disklabels at restore choosing "non standard restore")


Pieter

3)