Fbackup hangs on write

[Bruce Baillie]

I have used fbackup many times to backup systems remotely to a DDS drive. I have done command line and SAM both. I just upgraded the system the tape drive is on to 11.00 and tried a fbackup from a remote system and it just hangs. I CAN read the tape but cannot write. I swapped DDS drives, changed addresses, and installed every patch I could find but no writes.

[CHRIS_ANORUO · Accepted solution]

Hi Bruce,

Clean up the drive.

[Antoanetta Naghiu]

Permisions! Check permision on files supposely you have .rhosts or /etc/hosts equiv correctly. Can you rcp, rlogin?
Check permision file on /dev/rmt/..

[Andy Monks]

Bruce,

Assuming the system with the tape drive can write fbackup's itself, then it's possible the problem is related to fbackup on the 10.X machine. Have you checked patches on that?

It's possible that they changed something between the releases.

Also, something to try on the 11 machine is :-

fbackup -i /tmp -f localhost:/dev/rmt/XXX

That backs up using the network. If that hangs, it will pretty much prove where the problem is (well, at least which machine)

[Bruce Baillie]

I am root, permissions have not changed, swapped devices, same thing.
on the 11.00 system:
fbackup -i /tmp -f /dev/rmt/0m works
frecover -r -v -N -f /dev/rmt/0m works

fbackup -i /tmp localhost:/dev/rmt/0m returns: could not open output file localhost:/dev/rmt/0m

ping works on itself
rlogin works

The network is behaving normal.

[Rick Garland]

The device may not be 0m. Check the device name via ioscan
It appears that there is no special device file for /dev/rmt/0m

[Antoanetta Naghiu]

Check /etc/hosts file, .rhosts and try again.
If you are using DNS, be sure you have the host name correct. Should work.

[Bruce Baillie]

I can read/write to /dev/rmt/0m but not remote localhost:/dev/rmt/0m

[Rick Garland]

Does the localhost have /dev/rmt/0m?

[Andy Monks]

Bruce,

lets try forgetting fbackup for minute.

Do things like 'remsh localhost date' work? and using the actual hostname?

Could be .rhosts isn't setup. Btw, depending on patches the permissions of .rhosts MUST be 600.

[Bruce Baillie]

Now we are getting somewhere. .rhosts did NOT hav an entry for localhost. Error on remsh. Put localhost in .rhosts and remsh worked and fbackup -i /tmp -f localhost:/dev/rmt/0m also worked.

Now I tried a remote machine with sam and command line and still hangs.

[Dave Wherry]

Bruce,
I believe Andy is on the right path. I had a similar problem, unfortunately do not remember the fix. It was related to .rhosts and hosts.equiv. Pursue that path.
By the way, lighten up on your points here. I'm sure some people are very happy to be getting 10 points for each comment. However, I don't think that is not the way the point system was intended to be used.
I appreciate each reply I get to a question. Even incorrect answers may jar the memory or give me something to think about. But, 10 points for a wrong answer is itself wrong.

[Andy Monks]

Bruce,

Silly question. I'm assuming (if your using /etc/hosts and not dns/nis), that both machines have entries in /etc/hosts for each other?

Does doing (from the 10.X machine to the 11 machine) remsh <11 hostname> date

work?

Does it work either way around? maybe post the .rhosts from both machines along with there hostnames

[Tim Malnati]

If you are using dns then your problem may be that the entry in .rhosts needs to be fully qualified with the domain (eg: nodename.mydoamin.com). Also, network security is sensitive to the route that is actually being used if your machine has more than one network connection. You may have multiple node names for the same host in this event which is best handled by adding them all to the .rhosts file unless there is some specific security reason that you can trust one route but not the other.

[Bruce Baillie]

Sorry for the late reply, the HP server was having problems.

Success.... Patch PHCO_21263 for 10.20 fixed the problem.
Thanks to all who responded. This one was driving me crazy.

My opinion about points. I don't feel any persons reply is wrong. Everyone who replies is putting in time and effort to help someone with a problem. I feel this alone is worth an equal reward.

[wagley 2 10-18]

Hi Bruce,

First of all, thank you for your participation in the ITRC Forums and for taking the time to assign points.

Assigning points in the ITRC Forums will allow others to understand which answer best helped you solve your problem, making the community knowledge being shared here that much richer. In your message below, you gave 10 points to each person indicating that each of their answers solved your question completely. In the future, you should pick 1 answer that helped you the most and give that person the 10 points they desire. Image you have $10 to rate ALL the answers you've received - how would you spend your dollars to validate the quality of the solution you've received.

Thank you!

Kind regards,

Shayne
ITRC Forums Administrator
Hewlett-Packard

For more information about the point system, please visit:

More on assigning points -
http://us-support.external.hp.com/estaff/bin/doc.pl/screen=estaffAssistance?Page=file0002#forpoints