Question about make_tape_recovery

[Media_Frozen]

Hi Guys,

I have three questions here,hopefully someone can help me out here.


1)If i have vg00 with a total size of 68GB and the volume group is 18GB utilized, can i perform make_tape_recovery to a dds3 or dds4 tape?Do i need to consider the full 68GB space or only the utilized space of 18GB for make_tape_recovery to be successfully executed?

2)Can i verify the status of make_tape_recovery command from nickel output?if yes, where do i look it up?

3)I tried to restore from make tape recovery, but this is the error I'm seeing :

Archive extraction from tape is beginning… please wait
Pax_iux: ready for volume 2

Pax_iux: Type “go” when ready to proceed (or “quit” to abort):

What's the cause of this error message to pop up?



Thanks

[Torsten. · Accepted solution]

1) ignite will backup the data, not blocks or something else. So if you have 18GB data, you need space for 18GB.
If you have a 12/24 GB DDS you will likely need 2 tapes, because your compress ratio will be likely somewhere between 1:1 and 1:1.5. With a DDS4 you'll need only 1 tape I guess.

2) Don't know much about nickel. But ignite will give you a summary at the end.

3) "ready for volume 2" Ignite knows the backup was using 2 tapes, now it is waiting for the second tape.

[Steven E. Protter]

Shalom,

1) These are the most important backups you will ever make. It is much better to put them on a single tape. Will Ignite work multi tape? Probably but I would not want to have to deal with the restore.

2) The only real way to verify the status of the tape is to use it to restore to a sandbox system.

3) Re-read item 1.

SEP

[Ramesh S]

Hi

Just to add with Torsten

2)You could have a look on

var/opt/ignite/recovery//recoverylog (or)

var/opt/ignite/recovery/latest/recovery.log

3) Please have look on this thread

http://forums12.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do;HP-FORUMS-S-WPA-IDX=HyxDnYQJx2TClV1N1qW5npRy1BY8Wt0vKVb9LrXqQwQlNQJFMTjT!-1692251085!903289865?threadId=1171441&admit=109447627+1202909540317+28353475

Thanks & Regards

Ramesh

[Media_Frozen]

Hi Torsten,

1) ignite will backup the data, not blocks or something else. So if you have 18GB data, you need space for 18GB.
If you have a 12/24 GB DDS you will likely need 2 tapes, because your compress ratio will be likely somewhere between 1:1 and 1:1.5. With a DDS4 you'll need only 1 tape I guess.

We executed this command make_tape_recovery -I -v -x inc_entire=vg00 -a /dev/rmt/3mn, that tape drive happens to be a dds4 tape drive, the size of vg00 is 18GB, it should have fit into one dds4 tape, so why is it asking for the next volume?


Hi SEP,

2) These are the most important backups you will ever make. It is much better to put them on a single tape. Will Ignite work multi tape? Probably but I would not want to have to deal with the restore.

That's exactly what confuses me, we backup the system using the command above, it should have fit into a single tape,why on earth it kept asking for the next volume during restoration?


Hi Ramesh

2)You could have a look on

var/opt/ignite/recovery//recoverylog (or)

var/opt/ignite/recovery/latest/recovery.log

Thanks for the input, however i do know i have to check this location var/opt/ignite/recovery/ for the log files, i'm just asking whether i can check the recovery log files from nickel output?

[Bill Hassell]

> We executed this command make_tape_recovery -I -v -x inc_entire=vg00 -a /dev/rmt/3mn, that tape drive happens to be a dds4 tape drive, the size of vg00 is 18GB, it should have fit into one dds4 tape, so why is it asking for the next volume?

Well, Ignite is actually two separate tasks. The first is the creation of a bootable image of HP-UX which occupies many megs. Then pax is started after this large file and with 18GB for VG00, possible retries and error retries on the tape, you are right at the limit for an uncompressed DDS4 tape. Check that the device file for 3mn shows "best density". Also check that the tape actually says DDS4 media. And also check if the tape drive has any DIP switches. There may be one that disables compression.

You might also try just a pax backup of VG00 or add an -x exclude=/var to your make_tape_recovery command line. If either or both work OK, you're right at the limit of the tape capacity.

> Check the recovery log files from nickel output?

No. The standard nickel script does not include the Ignite logs. However, nickel is one big shell script so you can add a new logfile by calling the collect_file function. Look for shutdownlog, then duplicate the line and change the two parameters on the new line somethng like this:

`_collect_file shutdownlog /var/adm/shutdownlog`
`_collect_file Ignite-log /var/opt/ignite/recovery/latest/recovery.log`

[Khairy]

hi,

from info given. It seems you r on track with what you're doing. Using a DDS4 tape drive to backup vg00 which is only utilised about 18Gb of space. I dont see why is should not work.

Check if you're running recent version of ignite.

Others had points several posible scenario on why this is happening.

Torsten: 1) ignite will backup the data, not blocks or something else. So if you have 18GB data, you need space for 18GB.
If you have a 12/24 GB DDS you will likely need 2 tapes, because your compress ratio will be likely somewhere between 1:1 and 1:1.5. With a DDS4 you'll need only 1 tape I guess.

>> We executed this command make_tape_recovery -I -v -x inc_entire=vg00 -a /dev/rmt/3mn, that tape drive happens to be a dds4 tape drive, the size of vg00 is 18GB, it should have fit into one dds4 tape, so why is it asking for the next volume?

My suggestion is silly but it worth to check your tapes too.
Try to use DDS150 tape spesification which is standard for DDS4 tapes. If DDS3 tapes, the spesification standard will be DDS125 (its usually written on the tape surface/cover).

Using a DDS3 tape is supported in DDS4 tape drive but we have to consider DDS3 tape length (125) is shorter than DDS4 (150).
Ignite may prompt for 2nd tape during make_tape_recovery.

Please post the following output:

- swlist
- ioscan -funC tape
- vgdisplay -v vg00
- tape spesification used (sometimes tape manufacturer did not write its tape as DDS3 or DDS4, they simply write its standards like DDS90 (DDS1), DGD125P/DDS125 (DDS3) DDS150 (DDS4).

Let us know.

Rgds

[Shane Seymour]

With reguard to the second tape issue if you are running make_tape_recovery from something like cron and it wants to go to a second tape the pax command will not be able to open a terminal to prompt for a second tape and will exit at that point leaving you with a one tape incomplete recovery archive.

If you are running it from cron please check for messages from cron about it and the associated recovery.log files.