Cleaning tape

[Ceaser123]

Hi all,
I finally got the cleaning tape and 5 new 4mm tapes. I've tried to find info on using the cleaning tape. Do I just stick it in and let it run or are there commands associated with it?

[steven Burgess_2]

Hi

Just stick it in and let it run

HTH

Steve

[Ceaser123]

I'll also put a few other questions on this thread...
Do I need to be at a specific run level for a make tape recovery?

Here is the command line I'm using:
make_tape_recovery -x inc_entire=vg00 -I -v -a /dev/rmt/0mn

Sometimes I'll get io errors while writing LIF to tape and other times that part completes and I get errors returning a true or a false. Not sure about the last one because I'm trying a backup right now.

I also took the other scsi devices off the bus and only have the tape drive.

[Tom Ward_1 · Accepted solution]

Happy New Year Ceaser,

I normally run ignite tapes are run level 3. Run level 2 or 3 should be fine. I don't think single user mode willl work for you, since the file systems aren't mounted.

I normally just use "make_tape_recovery -A". Ignite uses the first tape drive by default.

Regards,
Tom

[Tom Ward_1]

Ceaser,

As far as the LIF errors go, I would suspect the tapes, if it works sometimes and not others. What other SCSI devices did you have on the same bus as the tape drive? It's a bad idea to mix disks and tape drives on the same SCSI bus.

Regards,
Tom

[Mic V.]

Hi,

Couple of other things about the cleaning tape: you want to record each time you use it, because a cleaning tape is only good for a certain # of uses. There's typically a set of "checkboxes" on the tape or its sleeve. You can check a box each time you use the tape.

Regarding the errors, one other thought is that you have some bad media (tapes). DDS (4mm) tapes have a limited number of uses. Sorry, I can't recall -- it was either 20 or 100. Your mileage may vary. Don't drop tapes or leave them too close to a magnet (such as a CRT screen :).

See if the make_* error happens consistently with the same tape(s).

HTH,
Mic

[Michael Tully]

This type of error (writing LIF) point to a media problem. Cleaning the drive and using a new tape should overcome this.

Definitely a bad idea having the tape drive sharing a SCSI chain with disks. Only thing I would share is a DVD/CD which may rarely get used.

You should be in init 3 to run make_tape_recovery, unless of course you have all filesystems in /dev/vg00 mounted.

[Bill Hassell]

make_tape_recovery will always return errors if:

- a mountpoint in /etc/fstab (such as /cdrom) is not mounted, even with the noauto mount option

- -x exclude=/cdrom will cause an error code, in this case, something like "not all files/directories were saved"

I have a request to get this fixed because I need a 'clean' finish for my scripted Ignite backup. Currently, I have to 'fix' /etc/fstab prior to running make_tape_recovery and then putting back the entry. It appears that there can be no warnings to get a clean return code.