fbackup to Sony AIT device

[Michael Poland_3]

We run an rp3410 server with an external Sony AIT .
ioscan -funC shows
Class I H/W Path Driver S/W State H/W Type Description
==========================================================================
tape 0 0/1/1/1.3.0 stape CLAIMED DEVICE SONY SDX-500V
/dev/rmt/0m /dev/rmt/c3t3d0BESTn
/dev/rmt/0mb /dev/rmt/c3t3d0BESTnb
/dev/rmt/0mn /dev/rmt/c3t3d0DDS
/dev/rmt/0mnb /dev/rmt/c3t3d0DDSb
/dev/rmt/c3t3d0BEST /dev/rmt/c3t3d0DDSn
/dev/rmt/c3t3d0BESTb /dev/rmt/c3t3d0DDSnb

When I do
fbackup -f /dev/rmt/0m -i /tmp
I get
fbackup(1004): session begins on Wed Jul 7 16:11:43 2004
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?

If I use the form
fbackup -f - -i /tmp >/dev/rmt/0m
it backs up ok.

Has anyone any ideas as to why it does not work in the first form?

[Shaikh Imran]

Hi,
Have you checked that whether with the second command you able to backup the files to the tape or the file goes to the /dev/rmt/0m file.
The best way is also to try a different backup command e.g. tar..etc..,
Just to check & confirm the device file is working or not then use fbackup..

Regards,

[Sanjay Kumar Suri]

Can you try taking the backup using other device files as listed in your ioscan output?

sks

[Michael Tully]

Try to use tar as a test to see if there is a problem. I've seen similar problems before where this has happened, which has been fixed by loading patches.

[Michael Poland_3]

touch /home/bsp/test.file
tar cf /dev/rmt/0m /home/bsp
rm /home/bsp/test.file
tar xf /dev/rmt/0m /home/bsp/test.file

This recovers the the file from the AIT. Just to make sure I put in a blank AIT and the recover did not work.

Also the form
fbackup -f - ... followed by frecover -i /home.... -f -
And
fbackup -f /dev/rmt/0mn -i /home/bsp
produced the same error message as dev/rmt/0m

[melvyn burnard · Accepted solution]

fbackup checks to see what model/manufacturer the tape drive reports back. This is an unsupported drive for fbackup.
You could try using the remote version, as this does NOT check for the tapedrive type.

try fbackup -f :/dev/rmt/0m -i /tmp
and then frecover using the same -f option

[Michael Poland_3]

Thanks for the explanation. At least I now know the why.
Cheers.

[Bill Hassell]

Note that there may be a patch for fbackup to incorporate the Sony tape drive. tar and cpio treat tape drives in a very primitive way so they tend to work. fbackup is much more sophisticated and must know many of the capabilities of the tape drive as well as the command options needed to make it work. Tape drives do not have the same command sets so tools like fbackup (and commercial tools like Omniback) need special tables with the different codes. The latest patch for fbackup is PHCO_28998. I would also load PHKL_29899 for SCSI tape handling.

[Michael Poland_3]

I put one of these patches in to no affect. I'll try the other one.

Many thanks.