how to backup the big file using tar

[miaoxucheng]

hi ,expert .
I send a command "tar cvf /dev/rmt/0m * " on HP-UX ,the result is "tar : Size of fullbkup > 2GB . Not dumped " ,where fullbkup is a file which size larger than 2GB .how can i do for this ?
another question ,I want to tar several files to the tape for several times .how can i know if the tape is full and the status of the tape is well .
appreciate your helping me !!

[Stefan Saliba · Accepted solution]

I'm afraid tar does not support files larger then 2GB. Try using maybe fbackup under HP-UX or compress your data, fbackup should do the job. Something more fancy, expensive and good then maybe try OMNIBACK.


It is not easy to know the status of a tape becuase since data on a tape is compressed then the amount of free space on a tape is dependent on the type data you are writing, if you are archiving text files then they compress very good, binaries compress a bit less.

Usually they assume a compression ratio of 1:2 so say a DDS2 tape will natively store 4GB but in theory using 1:2 compression it should store 8GB.

Using these guidelines and the size of the files you have you can estimate the free space.

Good luck

Stefan

[Paula J Frazer-Campbell]

Hi

Tar / cpio cannot backup files grater than 2 Gig, a possibility is to zip it first:-

gzip -9

See man gzip.

Or use fbackup.

Paula

[Michael Tully]

Hi,

You can get the 'gnu' based tar product. It can backup after the 2Gb marker. Alternatively you can use 'fbackup'.

Michael

[Peter Kloetgen]

Hi,

the tar- command is not able to backup files bigger than 2 GB! Use the pax- command instead. This is a newer command which is able to do so and is also able to read each tar- or cpio- format.

As alternative, you could also use Gnu- tar, which runs on HP-UX without problems.

Allways stay on the bright side of life!

Peter

[Frederic Sevestre]

Hi,

Have a look there :

http://forums.itrc.hp.com/cm/QuestionAnswer/1,,0x7283107d277ad611abdb0090277a778c,00.html

Regards,
Fr??d??ric

[Carlos Fernandez Riera]

1- See patches:


PHCO_26423 s700_800 11.11 tar(1) cumulative patch
PHCO_26422 s700_800 11.11 pax(1) cumulative patch

They enables up to 8GB files.


2- About tape available capacity:


search ddsinfo on http://hpux.cs.utah.edu

Or
ftp://contrib:9unsupp8@hprc.external.hp.com/sysadmin/programs/tapeinfo

Both programs will show compresion and capacity statistics.

[Arockia Jegan]

Here is the link to get the GNU tar. I had the same issue and I have no problem after installing the GNU tar. Make sure you are setting up the path after installing the GNU tar.

http://gatekeep.cs.utah.edu/hppd/hpux/Gnu/tar-1.13.25/