fbackup write error

[Dee_3]

We have an rp2430 that is getting an fbackup write error when run at night from an at job. The thing is the permissions are wide open, so is there any other reason it would not be able to write to a file? I get the following error:

fbackup(1004): session begins on Sun May 28 23:10:06 2006
fbackup(3024): writing volume 1 to the output file /JDIS/JDISONLINE/DAILY
fbackup(3014): WRITE ERROR: could not write to the output file
fbackup(3004): writer aborting
fbackup(1002): Backup did not complete : Reader or Writer process exit

The following is the permissions:

bortan01# ls -ld /JDIS/JDISONLINE
drwxrwxrwx 2 root sys 8192 May 31 13:03 /JDIS/JDISONLINE

bortan01# ll /JDIS/JDISONLINE/
total 12219072
-rw-rw-rw- 1 root group 2141918491 May 30 22:10 DAILY.Z
-rwxrwxrwx 1 root group 295760 May 30 22:10 DAILY.index
-rw-rw-rw- 1 root group 4113913715 Apr 29 20:19 MONTHLYDATA01020304
0506070811.Z
-rwxrwxrwx 1 sys999 group 1625 Feb 20 09:09 jdisload_online

There is a DAILY.Z, but no DAILY, so I don't understand why it would not be able to write to it.

[Steven E. Protter]

Shalom,

the backup is dead, sure as anything in life. the error message may be truncated, thats not uncommon.

SEP

[Michael Steele_2]

Sounds like a bad tape. How many times have you used it? Cleaned the tape drive recently?

[Bill Hassell]

It appears that you are writing to a file, not to a tape. Because you did not indicate whether this script is running as root or another user, it isn't possible to determine any permission problems. However, the permissions are really messed up (probably caused by a sysadmin trying to make the backup work).

First, the permissions drwxrwxrwx (777) are a massive security problem. Same with -rw-rw-rw-. If this data is important, NEVER allow every user on the computer to trash the files. Also, datafiles (like DAILY.index and jdisload_online) should NEVER have the execute bit set as they are not executable. Now having the execute bit set is not a security problem, it is just bad practice.

Now you cannot determine access rights to a file or directory until you know the permission(s) of the entire path. Missing from your list is the /JDIS directory. Now it may be 777 also (also a poor setting) and since you've tried changing the permissions and it does not work, the problem is not permissions. Change them back. Assuming root is running this backup, the minimum permissions should be:

(chmod 755 /JDIS /JDIS/JDISONLINE
bortan01# ls -ld /JDIS/JDISONLINE
drwxr-xr-x 2 root sys 8192 May 31 13:03 /JDIS/JDISONLINE

(chmod 644 DAILY.Z DAILY.index MONTHLYDATA01020304 jdisload_online
bortan01# ll /JDIS/JDISONLINE/
total 12219072
-rw-r--r-- 1 root group 2141918491 May 30 22:10 DAILY.Z
-rw-r--r-- 1 root group 295760 May 30 22:10 DAILY.index
-rw-r--r-- 1 root group 4113913715 Apr 29 20:19 MONTHLYDATA01020304
0506070811.Z
-rw-r--r-- 1 sys999 group 1625 Feb 20 09:09 jdisload_online

Now this assumes that users are allowed to look at this data. If not, change the chmod 644 to 600.

AS far as the problem, use this command:

bdf /JDIS/JDISONLINE

You may not have enough space on the lvol to save the files. fbackup is more comkfortable writing to a real tape so error messages are not complete for disk problems. The WRITE error probably means: filesystem full

Verify the filesystem problem by looking at /var/adm/syslog/syslog.log