fbackup not working

[logaraman]

Hi,
We have configured a IBM ULT3 tape drive with a HP-UX itanium server. We face issues when we use fback tp take backup. Th error is as below
"Starting interactive backup...

br_backup: Invoking fbackup. See /var/sam/log/br_log for details.

fbackup(1421): no history is available for graph file /var/sam/graphBCAa07861 (below level 0)

fbackup(1004): session begins on Wed Dec 12 16:15:57 2007

fbackup(3038): output file /dev/rmt/0m is not a valid device file for backup

fbackup(3019): would you like to enter a new output file?"

But when we use tar backup, the backup goes fine.

Any suggestions

[Torsten.]

"output file /dev/rmt/0m"

Do you have that device file?

# ioscan -fnkCtape

What is your command line?

[Shrikant Lavhate]

>fbackup(3038): output file /dev/rmt/0m is not a valid device file for backup

Just check tape is inserted properly and detectable by syetem or not.

#ioscan -funC tape

[logaraman]

Hi,

i am able to see the tape drive configured

# ioscan -funC tape
Class I H/W Path Driver S/W State H/W Type Description
=====================================================================
tape 0 0/3/1/0.6.0 stape CLAIMED DEVICE IBM ULT3580-TD3
/dev/rmt/0m /dev/rmt/c1t6d0BEST
/dev/rmt/0mb /dev/rmt/c1t6d0BESTb
/dev/rmt/0mn /dev/rmt/c1t6d0BESTn
/dev/rmt/0mnb /dev/rmt/c1t6d0BESTnb

[Steven E. Protter]

Shalom,

rmsf the tape device files and use insf -e or insf -C tape (not sure) to regenerate them.

One of the files may have been inadvertantly hammered with a copy for mv command.

SEP

[logaraman]

Hi Steve,
We have tried those options but still the same issue

[Torsten.]

How about

# lssf /dev/rmt/0m
# diskinfo -v /dev/rmt/0m

Does "tar" work with the same tape?
Did you try another tape?
Check if it is write protected!

[logaraman]

Hi,

The answers

# lssf /dev/rmt/0m
stape card instance 1 SCSI target 6 SCSI LUN 0 at&t best density available at address 0/3/1/0.6.0 /dev/rmt/0

# diskinfo -v /dev/rmt/0m
diskinfo: can't open /dev/rmt/0m: No such device or address

Does "tar" work with the same tape?
Yes, tar works

Did you try another tape?
yes , we had tried more than 5 tapes

Check if it is write protected!
No it is not write protected

[Torsten.]

If there is a good tape in drive, diskinfo will give a result like this (from my old workstation with DDS):

# diskinfo /dev/rmt/0m
SCSI describe of /dev/rmt/0m:
vendor: HP
product id: C1533A
type: sequential access
size: 1822373 Kbytes
bytes per sector: 1024

If there is **NO** good tape inside, the result will be

# diskinfo /dev/rmt/0m
diskinfo: can't open /dev/rmt/0m: No such device or address

So I'm not sure about your tape and drive.

[Torsten.]

BTW, what type of server is it and where is tape connected?
Post

# model
# ioscan -fn

[logaraman]

Hi Torsten,

We had inserted another tape and find below the output of diskinfo -v /dev/rmt/0m

# diskinfo -v /dev/rmt/0m
SCSI describe of /dev/rmt/0m:
vendor: IBM
product id: ULT3580-TD3
type: sequential access
size: 0 Kbytes
bytes per sector: 0
rev level: 73P5
blocks per disk: 0
ISO version: 0
ECMA version: 0
ANSI version: 3
removable media: yes
response format: 2
(Additional inquiry bytes: (32)0 (33)0 (34)0 (35)0 (36)0 (37)0 (38)0 (39)0 (4
0)0 (41)0 (42)0 (43)0 (44)0 (45)0 (46)0 (47)0 (48)0 (49)0 (50)0 (51)c (52)0 )

...

The model of the server is ia64 hp server rx6600. The output of ioscan -fn is enclosed for your reeference.

[Torsten.]

IMHO this does not look good:

size: 0 Kbytes

Is it different for other tapes?

Some more - what gives

# mptutil /dev/mpt1
# mptconfig /dev/mpt1

(this is the information from the SCSI HBA).

[logaraman]

Hi ,

Tried with couple of tapes too, the size is 0 Kbytes.

Also find enclosed the requested output

# mptutil /dev/mpt1

******************************************************************************
**** ****
**** M P T U T I L S u p p o r t T o o l ****
**** ****
**** for Ultra320 SCSI Controller ****
**** ****
**** Version 1.04 : Jun 23 2006 ****
**** ****
**** (C) Copyright 2003-2005 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. ****
**** ****
******************************************************************************

---- ADAPTER INFORMATION -----------------------------------------------------

Device File : /dev/mpt1
Hardware Path : 0/3/1/0
Driver Version : r11.23/1.04

---- CHIP INFORMATION --------------------------------------------------------

Device ID : 0x0030
Vendor ID : 0x1000
Revision ID : 0x8
Subsystem ID : 0x12c5
Subsystem Vendor ID : 0x103c
IOC Number : 0
Max. Devices : 16
Number of channels : 2
Driver State : OPERATIONAL


---- FIRMWARE INFORMATION ----------------------------------------------------

SCSI Firmware Version : 1.03.35.69 IO
SCSI Firmware Version (Hex) : 1.03.23.45 IO
SCSI Firmware Size : 40356
EFI Driver Version : 1.05.02.00

---- V P D I N F O R M A T I O N -------------------------------------------

Adapter : PCI-X DUAL CHANNEL ULTRA320 SCSI ADAPTER
Part Number : A6961-60011
Engineering Code : C-4640
Specification : PW=15W PCI-X=64BIT,133MHZ
Serial Number : P032931507
Manufacturing Date Code : C-4640
EFI driver version : 1.05.02.00


# mptconfig /dev/mpt1

Scan For Devices ...

---- ADAPTER INFORMATION -----------------------------------------------------

Device File : /dev/mpt1
Hardware Path : 0/3/1/0

---- BUS PARAMETERS ----------------------------------------------------------

Initiator SCSI ID : 7
SCSI Bus Rate : Ultra320
SCSI Bus Width : Wide

---- CHANNEL CAPABILITIES ----------------------------------------------------

Req/Ack Offset : 127
Bus Mode : LVD
Quick Arbitration Selection : Enabled
DT Clocking : Enabled
Packetized : Enabled

---- TARGET PARAMETERS -------------------------------------------------------
Target Description Firmware In Use In Use
Id Version Rate Width
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
No Targets

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Bill Hassell]

Since tar is working fine, there are no issues with the hardware. The problem is that unlike tar, fbackup directly interacts with every tape drive and there are unfortunately, many different tape drive variations as far as commands and status bits. To support this tape drive, you'll need the latest fbackup patch PHCO_31622 (for 11.23). If that does not fix the problem, you'll need to exchange the IBM drive for an HP drive to use fbackup.

[logaraman]

Hi Bill,

Will install the patch and let you know.

[logaraman]

Hi Bill,

Th epatch is already installed..

Any other suggestions other than changing the tape drive

[Khairy]

hi,

I had the same problem with hpux 11.11 with quantum lto3. Even after newest patch install for stape drive wont solve the issue.

Yes, tar could work but fbackup doesn't.

Thats mean, nothing wrong with hardware. Its just fbackup.

After a long study on the case, it turn out fbackup is very particular with tape drives type.

My solution after long months of fbackup problem.......i've changed to hp Ultrium 960 (LTO3) and it works straight away.

You can look in itrc and you will find more about fbackup problem with non-HP LTO3.

It seems you have no choice but to use HP LTO3 for fbackup.

Rgds

[Marcel Burggraeve]

Not sure if this works but I've seen HP9000 systems at a customer and they were using an atdd driver for IBM LTO drives on HP-UX.
This atdd driver was instead of stape on those systems.

[Avinash20]

>> stape is intended for SCSI tape drives, and not Fibre Channel tape drives such as the IBM ULT3580.
>> Also, from the following IBM URL there is further information on the atdd driver
requirement:
http://www-1.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=543&context=STCVQ6R&dc=D430&uid=ssg1S4000102&loc=en_US&cs=utf-8〈=en