fbackup fail with error codes.

[Tan Shirley]

Hi,

Any idea why my fbackup failed? Is it the tape cartridge or the tape drive that is faulty ? Previously it was working fine. I've scheduled it in my crontab to run automatically.

Below is the output. Hope those fbackup codes could help you guys to analyse what went wrong. Thanks a million !

Output from fbackup:

br_backup: Invoking fbackup. See /var/sam/log/br_log for details.
fbackup(1004): session begins on Tue Feb 26 03:15:01 2002
fbackup(1517): /net not backed up - 'n' option (NFS) not specified
fbackup(3205): WARNING: unable to read a volume header
fbackup(3024): writing volume 1 to the output file /dev/rmt/0m
fbackup(9999): I/O error
fbackup(3120): write error on a record in the index
fbackup(3025): write error at the beginning of the volume
fbackup(3316): enter '^[yY]' when volume 1 is ready on /dev/rmt/0m,
or '^[nN]' to discontinue:
fbackup(3004): writer aborting
fbackup(1002): Backup did not complete : Reader or Writer process exit

[Michael Tully]

Hi,

The first thing to do would be is to clean the
tape drive and then try another tape. Tapes
particularly DDS are easily broken. Re-run
the backup and see what happens.

Michael

[Tan Shirley]

Hi Michael,

Thanks for your reply. As this is a remote server and tape drive in my overseas subsidiary office, I was told my the administrator over there that a new tape drive was replaced. And he has ben changing the tapes everyday. So I don't believe none of the tapes are good ones 'cos the fbackup has never been successful even after a new tape drive was replaced.

From the fbackup codes, is there a quick way to determine what actually went wrong? Since it says I/O error, does it mean the drive is faulty and can't read the tape ?

Regards,

[Kenny Chau]

It seems like tape or tape drive problem. Try to clean the tape drive first and tested it with the same tape again. If still have problem, use a new tape to backup again. If still have problem, contact HP to replace a tape drive.

Hope this helps.
Kenny.

[Steven Sim Kok Leong]

Hi,

Test tar'ing a test file across to the remote tape drive eg. /etc/profile:

# tar cvf - /etc/profile | remsh remote_host dd of=/dev/rmt/0m

Make sure that the remote host is enabling login, exec, shell services in its /etc/inetd.conf. Remember to re-read inetd.conf by executing:

# inetd -c

Hope this helps. Regards.

Steven Sim Kok Leong

[Michael Tully]

Hi,

The fbackup error codes can be found here:

# strings /usr/lib/nls/C/fbackup.cat

Seeing that the drive refuses to backup to a new tape, try to read an existing tape that you ha created.

# frecover -V /tmp/tape.out1
# frecover -I /tmp/tape.out2

-Michael

[Steven Sim Kok Leong]

Hi,

So, if tar also fails, there is a very high probability that it is the remote tape drive having problems.

Btw, you don't by any chance know whether there have been any modifications to the firewall/router ACLs or rulebases between your client system and the remote server?

If r-services traffic is blocked, you may encounter problems:

# grep -e 512/tcp -e 513/tcp -e 514/tcp /etc/services
exec 512/tcp # remote execution, passwd required
login 513/tcp # remote login
shell 514/tcp cmd # remote command, no passwd used

To verify if these services on the remote host are accessible, perform the following:

# telnet remote_server 512
# telnet remote_server 513
# telnet remove_server 514

You should see the message:

Trying...
Connected to remote_server.
Escape character is '^]'.

Please remember to ensure and test end-to-end service connectivity between your client and the remote server.

Hope this helps. Regards.

Steven Sim Kok Leong

[Frank Slootweg]

Despite that the drive and tape have been replaced, I think you have a 'hardware' (i.e. non-software) problem, i.e. anything in the *whole* path from the (SCSI?) interface *through* to the tape.

Why? Because you get:

> fbackup(3024): writing volume 1 to the output file /dev/rmt/0m
> fbackup(9999): I/O error
> fbackup(3120): write error on a record in the index
> fbackup(3025): write error at the beginning of the volume

I.e. it can not *write* to the tape. It *can* *read* from the tape (" fbackup(3205): WARNING: unable to read a volume header", i.e. it can not read/find a *volume reader*, but it *can* read).

Now, can it not write at all or not everything? The latter? Why? Because it says

> fbackup(3120): write error on a record in the index

So it can not write (all of) the index, but the index is the *second* part of the tape. The first part is the label and it can apparently write that because it is not complaining about that (If it could not write the label, it would for example say "fbackup(3107): write error on a EOF in the ANSII label").

I hope this helps.