make_tape_recovery error

[Kevin Wright]

I am trying to use make_tape_recovery but I am not sure if it worked properly. I have used mt -t and tar -t to verify contents of the tape but am wonderring if anyone else recieved this error.

pax: ready for volume 2
when ready type go:

I put in another tape and typed go, then it said /dev/rmt/0mn busy, then displayed warnings the pax command returned non-zero exit status
then said that the system archive was complete with warnings..
was it asking for another tape? I never had this error when using an older version of ignite, I am using 3.3.116.

[Patrick Wallek]

Some questions first: 1) What type of tape / tape drive are you using (dds, dds2, dds3, dds4)? 2) Has your root VG grown any since you last made a make_recovery tape? 3) What option to make_recovery were you using and what options to make_tape_recovery are you now using?

The reason for that error message is that pax (a tar type thing) reached the end of the first tape that you had in the drive and needed another. Did you wait for the new tape to finish loading in the drive (all the lights to stop flashing) before you typed in go? If not, that could be the reason for the errors.

[Eileen Millen]

Did you do the
mt -t /dev/rmt/0mn fsf 1
to forward skip the tape past the LIF area?
Eileen

[Kevin Wright]

I am using a maxell DDS tape. The root VG has not grown since last tape was made, actually smaller because before I used make_recovery -A and now I tried make_tape_recovery -x inc_entire=vg00 -x exclude=/u00 -I -v -a /dev/rmt/0mn.
What is the compression on pax, with the options I used, vg00 is around 3.5G, with /u00 it is over 4.5G, but using the same tapes, make_recovery -A worked before. I am not completely sure the lights were not flashing before I typed go, but I think so. Is it normal for make recovery to use multiple tapes?

[Patrick Wallek · Accepted solution]

make_tape_recovery uses pax to write the data to the tape after it writes the initial boot area. Whether or not make_tape_recovery will use multiple tapes depends on on how big vg00 is, the type of tape / tape drive you are using, compression ration of the files and such. If make_tape_recovery needs more than one tape it will prompt you. If you are using a DDS1 tape or tape drive, then that is probably part of the problem. I don't remember the exact capacity of a DDS tape, but I would recommend going to at least a DDS3 drive. DDS3 tapes give you 12GB native, 24GB with 2:1 compression.

[Kevin Wright]

The drive says it is a 4G DDS tape drive using DDS tapes.

[Patrick Wallek]

Something that you should probably check is whether or not your /u00 directory actually got excluded. If it didn't that could be why it took an extra tape.

There are a couple of ways you can check this.

1) Have a look at the /var/opt/ignite/logs/makerec.log2 file and see if /u00 is referenced.

2) Do the following to see if it is on the tape itself:

mt -t /dev/rmt/?mn fsf 1
tar -tvf /dev/rmt/?mn

Let the tar run and see if you ever see /u00

[Deshpande Prashant]

HI
I also get prompted for second tape on my K580 box. This has dds2 drive and 8gb vg00. So most of time I need 2 tapes to finish make recovery.

Also it will depend on which tapes (60m, 90m or 120m) I use. 90m tapes will go to 8GB with compression but 60m will not, so will need more tapes.
Thanks.
Prashant.

[Kevin Wright]

Yes, /u00 did get excluded, in recovery.log it has a 0 next to it and a 2 next to the other lvols in vg00. then the warnings apear about how VG00 is only partially included..I have ordered 120m dds-2 tapes from HP and I will try it again on those.. I really don't want to use two tapes if I don't have to..
Thanks