Mounting to tape drive, please help.

[Chin Meng]

Thank you in advance for all experts.

Here, I have a problem with mounting to tape driver.After I have made recovery from K class to DSS tape drive has been done, I want to mount in the tape driver and check the cartridge tape whether got some files that I have been done the backup just now.

The tape device is /dev/rmt/0m

I tried to used HPUX command like:-
mount /dev/rmt/0m { failed )

Thank you for all HP-UX experts.

[Trevor Dyson]

mount is used to mount filesystems - not tapes

To list a tape you need to know the command used to write the backup.

to list a tar backup:

tar tvf /dev/rmt/0m

to list and fbackup tape completely

frecover -rNvf /dev/rmt/0m

To do a quick (and potentially less accurate) list):

frecover -I /tmp/index -f /dev/rmt/0m
more /tmp/index

[Dan Hetzel]

Hi Chin,

A tape created with 'make_recovery' is a bootable tape, this means that you can actually boot off the tape.

When people are telling you that you have to 'mount' the tape, don't take that 'stricto sensu', it means physically put the tape into the tape drive, not mount as if it was a disk.

Best regards,

Dan Hetzel

[Chin Meng]

Thank you for all.

I had done a backup on my server K Class as shown below:-
make_recovery -Av -d /dev/rmt/0m

Afetr that I want to check the files on the tape. What I need to do? I am not using tar or fbackup.

Thank you.

[Dan Hetzel]

Hi Chin,

To check th efiles written on the tape:

1. Put the tape into your drive
2. mt -t /dev/rmt/0mn fsf 1
3. tar -tvf /dev/rmt/0m

The command listed in point 2 here above addresses the 'no-rewind' device (/dev/rmt/0mn) to move your file to the archive part.
tar will list all files on the tape.

Best regards,

Dan

[Dan Hetzel]

Hi Chin,

I meant "move your tape" and not "move your file" of course...

Dan

[Chin Meng]

Thank you, Dan.

The system display the "directory checksum errors" after I had executed the command tar -tvf /dev/rmt/0m. What is directory checksum errors? How can I rectify the problem?

Thank you.

[Dan Hetzel]

Hi Chin,

"directory checksum error" means that, at the tape position where you start reading, the data doesn't look like an archive.

Did you execute the commands EXACTLY as described?
2. mt -t /dev/rmt/0mn fsf 1
It is important to use the "/---/---/--n" device because this will position the tape WITHOUT rewinding it thereafter. From that position, your 'tar -tvf' should succeed.

Dan

[Dan Hetzel]

Hi again,

You'll find logs of what has been written onto the tape in '/var/opt/ignite/logs/' as well as errors (if any).

# man make_recovery

will surely help

;-)

Dan

[Chin Meng]

Hi Dan.

Great! Thank you to you. I am using the DSS cartridge 24 GB. Is that has any ways I can erase the old backup files before make a new recovery backup files.

Thank you.

[Dan Hetzel · Accepted solution]

Hi Chin,

You're welcome, glad it helped.

You don't need to erase the tape before re-using it. Everything you write on the tape will automatically overwrite what's already on, unless you use the 'no-rewind' tape.

Every time you insert a tape, it's automatically positioned at the beginning, so you shouldn't worry about rewinding.
If you use commands like:
mt -t /dev/rmt/0mn fsf 1
your tape will NOT be positioned at the beginning ANYMORE. The 'fsf' stands for 'forward skip file' and is used to position the tape at a file mark.

Best regards,

Dan

PS: if you play a bit with the 'fsf' stuff, don't forget once finished to issue the following command:
mt -t /dev/rmt/0m rew
This wil rewind ('rew') the tape.

[James R. Ferguson]

Chin:

You note that the tape you want to verify is one from an Ignite make_recovery run. Check this thread for a procedure to do this:

http://my1.itrc.hp.com/cm/QuestionAnswer/1,1150,0x2c6e7e990647d4118fee0090279cd0f9,00.html

...JRF...