Recovering specific diretories from a bootable IGNITE backup tape

[Dharshana Jayasuriya]

Hi All,

I have a IGNITE bootable backup tape of the vg00 of server A. Now I want to restore only certain diretories to server B (of same model as server A). I cannot boot server B. Is it possible to do this with the IGNITE tape ?

[James R. Ferguson · Accepted solution]

Hi:

# mt -t /dev/rmt/0mn fsf 1
# tar -xvf /dev/rmt/0m filename

If 'filename' represents a directory, it will be extracted recursively.

Note the no-rewind device in the 'mt' command.

Regards!

...JRF...

[harry d brown jr]

Yes, the tape has a "pax" backup on it in the "tar" format.

Using the NOREWIND tape device, skip past the first file set:

(I always rewind the tape first just be safe)

# mt -f /dev/rmt/?mn rew

# mt -f /dev/rmt/?mn fsf 1

(list the files first)
# tar -tvf /dev/rmt/?mn

live free or die
harry

[John Dvorchak]

One thing to add to Harry and James' answers is to be sure you execute the tar command from the root / directory. Depending on the version of Ignite and wether you used make_recovery or make_tape_recovery the file locations will be either relative to the current directory or absolute paths. At least I think I am right on this one. I have so many different version of Ignite running that I seem to loose track, but I do know that if you start in the / directory you won't go wrong. Also a good reason for doing a tar -t to view the files first. You can cancel it with CTL-C so you don't have to read the entire tape.

Not to be critical but Harry has a typo in his mt command. It should be :

mt -t /dev/rmt/0mn fsf 1

He has "mt -f"

[James R. Ferguson]

Hi:

Harry is correct. In fact, more so than I with his use of the 'mt' command. The '-f tapename' form is the preferred syntax. '-t tapename' is considered obsolete, although it is still supported.

Regards!

...JRF...