cpio with L2000 and SureStore autoloader 1/9

[Systems Department]

We are backing up an L2000 server with cpio to an external SureStore DLT autoloader 1/9. We are backing up about 1.6Gb and it is taking 2.5 hours to back it up.
We have tested this with OmniBack II and it only takes 18 mins.
Is there any reason why cpio takes so long to back it up? Is there any way of speeding up the cpio backup?
We are using the -B option to set the block size to 5120 bytes instead of 512 bytes.

Many thanks, GC.

[Frank Slootweg]

cpio(1) (and tar(1)) et al are no backup utilities and are about the worst choice for backup.

If you have (tested) OmniBack, then why are you using cpio?

I really can only recommend to use OmniBack.

If you 'must' use a 'no charge' program, then at least use fbackup(1M).

If you must use cpio (because of compatibility with other systems), then I advise to use pax(1) instead (because it can handle slightly bigger block sizes) or pipe cpio to dd(1) with a large "bs=...".

[Alexander M. Ermes]

Hi there.
with cpio you will not get the DLT into streaming mode. Omniback delivers a continuing amount of data, while cpio does not.
With cpio it is something similar like a buffer underrun on a cd burner.
Rgds
Alexander M. Ermes