how to resume an automated fbackup after EOT

[Klaus Frank]

Hallo to all

I use sam automated backup for a weekly full backup. Now it occurs that fbackup reaches EOT
see mail messages from last backup:

fbackup(1004): session begins on Sat Aug 4 02:10:01 2001
fbackup(3203): volume 1 has been used 0 time(s)
fbackup(3024): writing volume 1 to the output file /dev/rmt/0m
fbackup(3003): normal EOT
fbackup(3316): enter 'yes' when volume 2 is ready on /dev/rmt/0m,
or 'no' to discontinue:
fbackup(3004): writer aborting
fbackup(1002): Backup did not complete : Reader or Writer process exit

/var/sam/log/br_log reports:
Exit code = 2

Here my question:
How can I resume the backup process on monday morning after I changed the tape ?
I tried fbackup -R so far but did not succeed because I don't know how to obtain the required "restart file" for that option!

any ideas ?
thanks ahead
Klaus

[Phil Squire]

Hi

Could it be that the Automated backup option in SAM does not allow user interaction where is would normally be necessary to repond to the 'yes' or 'no' prompt?

Hitting EOT in SAM Interactive Backup mode definitely prompts and waits for interaction. You could try starting your backup in interactive mode if possible and see if the same thing happens.

Regards
Phil

[Thierry Poels_1]

hi,
with standard config fbackup will exit in batch if the end of tape is reached.
You could modify the config so that the tape is ejected and a second tape is requested.
(see man fbackup - chgvol)
Or if you're lucky you could use a second tapedrive.
good luck,
Thierry.

[Klaus Frank]

Thank you Phil for answering
I sure need more than one tape. Running fbackup manually allways promts me for the next tape. The problem is the unattended weekand backup.

Thank you Thierry for your hint to chgvol.
But what would be an appropreate command to write into /var/adm/fbackupfiles/chgvol ?

[Robin Wakefield]

Hi Klaus,

I've never done this myself, but I would suggest something like:

=================================
#!/bin/ksh

mt -t /dev/rmt/0m offl
REW=1
while [ $REW -ne 0 ] ; do
sleep 60
mt -t /dev/rmt/0m rew
REW=$?
done
exit 0

==============================

so that the 1st tape is ejected and the script will not exit until a 2nd tape is ready.

Rgds, Robin

[Robin Wakefield]

Klaus,

You may also want to issue a mail message at the start of the script to inform someone that the tape needs changing.

Rgds, Robin.

[Troy Johnson_2]

I had a similar situation and I implemented this fbackup script. You will have to alter the time allowed to change the tape before aborting to fit your needs.

[Troy Johnson_2]

To get this fbackup script search the technical knowledge base for document id KBRC0001392.

[Jerry Zhang]

You can try option -R:

$ fbackup -R restart ...

which will restart an fbackup session from where it was previously interrupted.

You can find this from the man page of fbackup.

[Klaus Frank]

Hi Robin

Your script is working! The tape was ejekted on monday morning. But the fbackup process was already trminated by error 2.

Hi Troy

I tried to find doc.id "KBRC0001392" within all knowledge trees but no doc was found !

Hi Jerry

Thanks for your idea. But see my first message on top. For option -R fbackup requires a "restart-file" ! Where do I get this file from, what should be in it ??

[Sachin Patel]

Hi Klaus,
I uses
#fbackup -0vug /var/adm/fbckupfiles/graphs/dirs -f /dev/rmt/c0t1d0BEST
and it never dies on waiting.

Sachin

[Robin Wakefield]

Klaus,

Try putting some debugging into your main backup script and the chkvol script to check it is looping correctly, and to see at what stage the fbackup fails.

Was the log still saying:

fbackup(3316): enter 'yes' when volume 2 is ready on /dev/rmt/0m,
or 'no' to discontinue:
fbackup(3004): writer aborting
fbackup(1002): Backup did not complete : Reader or Writer process exit

? Rgds, Robin

[James R. Ferguson · Accepted solution]

Hi Klaus:

I've attached the document for which you are looking (# KBRC00001392).

Regards!

...JRF...