Problems writing to tape - tar works, make_tape_recovery doesn't

[Unix Team]

I have a system running HP-UX 11.i. I can tar to the onboard DDS3 tape drive (/dev/rmt/0m) but I get an IO error when trying to run a make_tape_recovery. I have tried the -a option and using all the different names for the drive, c0t3d0BEST, 0mn, 0mnb, etc. None of them will work. The sister system for this cluster can run the make_tape_recovery just fine. I have checked the drivers on each of them and they have the same ones IN and OUT. The drive has been replaced with the same errors.

Any ideas?

Thanks,
--Craig

[Unix Team]

Oh yeah, forgot to add that fbackup seems to work also. But I need to make a bootable backup tape...

* /opt/ignite/bin/make_arch_config -c
/var/opt/ignite/recovery/2006-02-24,01:59/archive_cfg -g
/var/opt/ignite/recovery/2006-02-24,01:59/flist -n 2006-02-24,01:59 -r
64 -d Recovery\ Archive -t -i 1
* Saving the information about archive to
/var/opt/ignite/recovery/previews
* Creating The Tape Archive
1073+0 records in
1072+1 records out
I/O error
ERROR: /usr/bin/dd if=/var/tmp/uxinstlf.recovery of=/dev/rmt/0mn bs=2k failed
to write LIF onto tape.
ERROR: Failed to generate LIF on tape .


======= 02/24/06 02:05:56 EST make_tape_recovery completed unsuccessfully

[Ivan Ferreira · Accepted solution]

Have you tried to run dd as the command showed?

I know that you want a bootable tape but remember that you have the make_net_recovery option.

[Robert-Jan Goossens]

Hi Craig,

Check this doc.

Title: intermittent I/O errors with dd, make_sys_image, and pax
Document ID: UIUXKBRC00015989

US
http://www2.itrc.hp.com/service/cki/docDisplay.do?docLocale=en_US&docId=200000079988494

Europe
http://www4.itrc.hp.com/service/cki/docDisplay.do?docLocale=en_US&docId=200000079988494

Regards,
Robert-Jan

[Stephen Keane]

What does

mt -f /dev/rmt/0mn status

give you, I'd also be interested in the default tape block size for the device (if you happen to know it).

[David Nixon]

I've seen something similar with an external VS160 tape drive - you could write a tape using tar, but vxdump would prematurely detect end of media and abort.
In this case the issue was related to
SCSI cable length.

[Unix Team]

Here is the status:

mt -t /dev/rmt/0m status
Drive: HP C1537A
Format: DDS-3 format
Status: [1112500] online compression immediate-report-mode
File: 0
Block: 1072

Looking at the other thread, I get past the pax check without errors. The only errors I get up to the failure is one for:
vxvm:vxprint: ERROR: IPC failure: Configuration daemon is not accessible.

[Unix Team]

I tried the dd command by itself and got the same IO failure, so I guess I'll call the CE to come in during the window and check the termination...

/usr/bin/dd if=/var/tmp/uxinstlf.recovery of=/dev/rmt/0mn
I/O error
4289+0 records in
4288+1 records out

[AshishJain_USA]

May seem silly but

1. Have you tried swapping the media with a new one or in case you don't have a new media, can you try and use it on the other server where things seem to be working OK ?

2. Did you try it out in the single user mode ( when you had the DDS3 replaced ) ? If not, can you try it out in the next maintenance window .

rgds...Ashish

[Unix Team]

When I used fbackup to backup a small filesystem (/tmp) it worked okay. When I used fbackup to backup a larger filesystem (1.5Gb) the fbackup failed. So it appears that it is probably hardware. Trying to schedule the hardware call to coincide with the maintenance window...