Tape drives, slot, and tapes

[samsam001]

Hi,

Since I am not able to physically locate the backup tape drive at the data centre, I can only login the system probing around the system to find its current status of the tape drives, used/free slots and what type of tapes to be used for our backup/recovery device.
Here is what I can get from the server:
# MRU_ROBOT=/dev/changer/mc1
# export MRU_ROBOT
# robot show drives
DRIVE: 0 HG2978L3
DRIVE: 1 HG2962L3
# robot show slots
SLOT: 0 Empty
SLOT: 1 HG2979L3
SLOT: 2 HG2960L3
SLOT: 3 HG2970L3
SLOT: 4 HG2971L3
SLOT: 5 HG2972L3
SLOT: 6 HG2973L3
SLOT: 7 HG2974L3
SLOT: 8 HG2975L3
SLOT: 9 HG2976L3
SLOT: 10 HG2977L3
SLOT: 11 HG2938L3
SLOT: 12 HG2963L3
SLOT: 13 HG2964L3
SLOT: 14 HG2965L3
SLOT: 15 HG2952L3
SLOT: 16 HG2961L3
SLOT: 17 HG2953L3
SLOT: 18 HG2951L3
SLOT: 19 HG2954L3
SLOT: 20 HG2950L3
SLOT: 21 HG2957L3
SLOT: 22 HG2956L3
SLOT: 23 HG2955L3
SLOT: 24 HG2958L3
SLOT: 25 HG2959L3
SLOT: 26 HG2936L3
SLOT: 27 HG2935L3
SLOT: 28 HG2920L3
SLOT: 29 Empty
SLOT: 30 HG2944L3
SLOT: 31 HG2940L3
SLOT: 32 HG2941L3
SLOT: 33 HG2942L3
SLOT: 34 HG2943L3
SLOT: 35 HG2945L3
SLOT: 36 HG2946L3
SLOT: 37 HG2947L3
SLOT: 38 HG2948L3
SLOT: 39 HG2949L3
SLOT: 40 HG2924L3
SLOT: 41 HG2922L3
SLOT: 42 HG2923L3
SLOT: 43 HG2939L3
SLOT: 44 HG2929L3
SLOT: 45 HG2930L3
SLOT: 46 HG2933L3
SLOT: 47 HG2932L3
SLOT: 48 HG2931L3
SLOT: 49 HG2934L3
SLOT: 50 HG2925L3
SLOT: 51 HG2928L3
SLOT: 52 HG2927L3
SLOT: 53 HG2926L3
SLOT: 54 HG2921L3
SLOT: 55 HG2937L3
SLOT: 56 HG2966L3
SLOT: 57 Full
#

Can anyone please tell me what backup tape drives used and the current status of the used/free slots?

Thanks
P

[samsam001]

Hi,

Here is the script:
#!/bin/sh
# This script is for backing up the Collab Suite and uses 8 tapes
# reclaim some disk space first
find /u04/backups/CollabSuite/* -type f -name "*.gz" -mtime +5 -exec rm -rf {} \; 2>/dev/null
echo "Begin tape backup........................................"
date
/sbin/vdump -DNuf /dev/tape/tape5c /u04/backups/CollabSuite
date
# Now, we shuffle the tape
MRU_ROBOT=/dev/changer/mc1
export MRU_ROBOT
echo "Backup has been put on to the tape loaded on drive 1"
echo "Checking the drives and slots after the backup, before reshuffling..."
robot show drives
robot show slots
robot move slot 50 slot 29
robot move slot 51 slot 50
robot move slot 52 slot 51
robot move slot 53 slot 52
robot move slot 54 slot 53
robot move slot 55 slot 54
robot move slot 56 slot 55
robot unload drive 1 slot 56
robot load drive 1 slot 29
echo "Checking the drives and slots after reshuffling..."
echo "The tape used for the backup should now be loaded on slot 56"
robot show drives
robot show slots
date
echo "End of tape backup......................................"

One thing I don't understand is that in the first 3 lines of the script, it used /dev/tape/tape5c to backup the directory. What happened if the tape becomes full?

Thanks

[Rob Leadbeater]

Hi,

If the tape becomes full, then the script will prompt for the second reel to be inserted.

There doesn't appear to be anything in the script that will manage this for you.

Cheers,

Rob