testing backup tapes

[Jason Luginbuhl_1]

If the backups were created by fbackup, you can use frecover -N to check the
validity of the backup.

Another method that I have seen used is:
# mt -t /dev/rmt/0mn fsf 1
# tar tvf /dev/rmt/0m

This should cause a read thru of the tape to verify the data integrity.

[Paul Bouchie]

# tar tvf [device] - can only be use to varify if the backup was created using
# tar cvf [device]

To varify a backup created by fbackup, use : frecover -f [device] -I somefile

'somefile' will contain the index of all files backed up!

[Robert Gamble]

You could also put a "audit" file in /var/yp and try to recover that file. fbackup does things alphabetically, so if you have to restore a file from the end of the backup, you know for sure that frecover can read the entire tape(media) and restore the files.

We included this step inside our backup script, ensuring each tape was good.

Good Luck!