Sam Backup Giving Exit Code = 2

[Son Le]

Hi everyone, the sam backup software is giving me the following error when its doing a full backup.

"Full backup failed on xxx.com : Wed Dec 4 22:21:12 PST 2002. Exit code = 2 "

Can you guys tell me what that exit code entails and how to go about fixing the problem. Thanks so much. You can either email me at crazycelicagts@yahoo.com or AIM me on Mircon31. Please I need to resolve this quickly so any suggestion or comment is appreciated. Thanks.

[Robert-Jan Goossens]

Hi,

Take a look at next link, gives all exit codes and solutions.

http://forums.itrc.hp.com/cm/QuestionAnswer/1,,0xc39703bbece8d5118ff40090279cd0f9,00.html

Kind regards,

Robert-Jan.

[Son Le]

dang that was a fast response...I took a look at that link and the link that I found on that page doesn't exist anymore. Thanks for the fast response.

[Jean-Louis Phelix]

hi,

- Are you sure that you get enough space on your DAT for a full backup ? If it's and automated backup it could be a problem ...

- From fbackup manpage :

Although the utilities have no programming limitations that restrict users to this size, complete backups and recoveries of substantially larger systems can cause a large amount of system activity due to the amount of virtual memory (swap space) used to store the indices. Users who want to use these utilities, but are noticing poor system-wide performance due to the size of the backup, are encouraged to back up their systems in multiple smaller sessions, rather than attempting to back up the entire system at one time.

Did you see any message in dmesg or syslog concerning exhausted resources ?

Regards.

[Robert-Jan Goossens]

Yes sorry about that,

new search,

-quoting Steve Steel,

fbackup has the following exit codes:

1. A warning return value is introduced to notice the operator that fbackup ends with the warnings. The following explanations can be found in fbackup(1M) man page:
fbackup returns one of the following values.
0 upon normal completion.
1 if it is interrupted but allowed to save its state for possible restart.
2 if any error conditions prevent the session from completing.
4 if any warning conditions are encountered.

Exit code 1 is used if there was operator intervention and the state
was saved so that the backup can be resumed later. (Intervention w/o
saving the state would mean exit code 2.) Either this isn't very
popular or relatively bug-free and easy to use, since I never got
a question about it.

In the case of an exit code 2, the lats few messages in the log should
tell you what happened. Typical reasons are: bad tape, dirty tape drive,
etc. while installing the latest fbackup patch often helps too.
You can't tell the failure reason from the exit code 2 alone. There are
a number of things fbackup needs to set up (shared memory, semaphore,
start child processes, sort the index) where a fatal error could occur.
Later errors tend to be unspecific (the "could happen anytime" category
would include an I/O problem with the output device or a failed malloc,
the "should not happen" category that a process got killed).


Kind regards,

Robert-Jan.

[Son Le]

thanks for all you guys response...well i have been backing up the whole system for the past 4-5 months without a problem and just recently it started happening. It started after one of the directory was deleted, specifically the usr directory, and we had to restore the directory. After that it I noticed the errors started to occur. What can it be? could it be permission related? any other possible solution? I cleaned the drive with one of the cleaning tape and put in another tape just in case that tape is bad. We switch out the tape with another tape everyday and have 2 set of tapes for 2 weeks worth. I appreciate the response.

[Robert-Jan Goossens]

Hi Son Le,

Could you tell us a bit more about your system,
OS-version, patchlevel, hardware.

Kind regards,

Robert-Jan.

[Son Le]

Hi...sure thing, the OS-Version is HP-UX B.11.00 U and the hardware is as follows:

processor: 2
Cpu version: 2.0 PA8600
Clock Frequency: 550 Mhz
Hardware Model: 9000/800/L1500-5x
Kernel Width Support: 64

Memory:

Physical Memory: 1537.4 MB
Real Memory:
Active: 42959.3 KB
Total: 110245.4 KB

Virtual Memory:
Active: 101105.3 KB
Total: 144880.9 KB
Free Memory Pages: 7572 at 4 KB/page

Swap Space:
Avail: 3072 MB
Used: 244 MB

Operating System:

OS ID: B.11.00 U

I don't know how to find the patchlevel...where can I find it or how do I determine it. Thanks for your help.

[Frank Slootweg]

This is starting to get confusing!

Another poster implied that he *only* got the "Exit code =" message, and now you seem to imply the same.

To be frank (which/who I am :-)), I do not believe that!

*Where* do you get that ("Full backup failed on xxx.com : Wed Dec 4 22:21:12 PST 2002. Exit code = 2") message?

I suspect it will be in an *e-mail* message.

If so, please

1) post the *complete* e-mail message
and
2) look in the e-mail message for pointers to files and look in those files for further information clues and post that information

If not (i.e. message is not in an e-mail message), then look for an e-mail message (in root's mailbox).

[Frank Slootweg]

Addition:

As far as I know the *e-mail* message will look like:

[start quote:]
Full backup started on uu001 : Thu Oct 11 04:30:01 METDST 2001 (Scheduled Backup)
{ fbackup -0 -u -g /etc/sam/br/graphZBAa09938 -I /var/sam/log/br_index.full - c /etc/sam/br/fbackup_config -d /var/adm/fbackupfiles/dates -f /dev/rmt/0m } 2>& 1
Full backup failed on uu001 : Thu Oct 11 04:30:04 METDST 2001.
Exit code = 2
For more information, see the log file /var/sam/log/br_log
[end quote.]

If you get such an e-mail message, then, as it says, please look in the br_log file and please post the relevant part of that file, i.e. from the very start of the failed backup, all the way to the very end.

[Robert-Jan Goossens]

Hello Frank,

Could you explain a bit, did I confuse something ???

Kind regards,

Robert-Jan.

[Frank Slootweg]

Hello Robert-Jan,

No, you did not confuse anything, but I think that the Question Author is not looking at all the available (error) information, or at least does not provide it to us.

I am quite sure that if there is a "Exit code = ..." error, there is *additional* information in other files/messages. I/we need that additional information.

As far as I know, this is a case of RTFM, Read The Fine Message.

[Son Le]

sorry if I didn't provide you with detail information and for that I apolozied. Here is the email that I get from the HP machine.

"Full backup failed on twia-hp.trans-western.com : Thu Dec 5 22:20:25 PST 2002 .
For more information, see the log file /var/sam/log/br_log.

Output from fbackup:

br_backup: Invoking fbackup. See /var/sam/log/br_log for details.
fbackup(1004): session begins on Thu Dec 5 21:00:00 2002
fbackup(1517): /net not backed up - 'n' option (NFS) not specified
fbackup(3203): volume 1 has been used 8 time(s)
fbackup(3024): writing volume 1 to the output file /dev/rmt/0m
fbackup(3003): normal EOT
fbackup(3316): enter '^[yY]' when volume 2 is ready on /dev/rmt/0m,
or '^[nN]' to discontinue:
fbackup(3004): writer aborting
fbackup(1002): Backup did not complete : Reader or Writer process exit"


I have looked in the br_log and this is what it tells me:

Full backup started on twia-hp.trans-western.com : Thu Dec 5 21:00:00 PST 2002 (Scheduled Backup)
{ fbackup -0 -u -g /etc/sam/br/graphVCAa12170 -I /var/sam/log/br_index.full -c /etc/sam/br/fbackup_config -d /var/adm/fbackupfiles/dates -f /dev/rmt/0m } 2>&1
Full backup failed on twia-hp.trans-western.com : Thu Dec 5 22:20:26 PST 2002 .
Exit code = 2

I have attached the br_log to this. Hope I have provide you with the information you requested and once again sorry for not being detailed. I hope the detail I provide will help determine the problem with the backup. I appreciated all you guys help.

[Jean-Louis Phelix]

Hi,

I can read that I had already mentioned that a possible cause was backup not filling in a tape. Now I'am sure it's the case ...

fbackup(3024): writing volume 1 to the output file /dev/rmt/0m
fbackup(3003): normal EOT
fbackup(3316): enter '^[yY]' when volume 2 is ready on /dev/rmt/0m,
or '^[nN]' to discontinue:
fbackup(3004): writer aborting

You can see that fbackup is waiting for a confirmation of next tape to be ready. This can't be done from cron, so it aborts.

Regards.

[Frank Slootweg]

Yup, as Jean-Louis mentions, it is just a case of a full tape!

While the

> fbackup(3003): normal EOT

is perhaps a little cryptic (EOT, End Of Tape), the reference to "volume 2"

> fbackup(3316): enter '^[yY]' when volume 2 is ready on /dev/rmt/0m,
> or '^[nN]' to discontinue:

should make clear that fbackup expected another tape, and, as Jean-Louis mentions, a (cron) Scheduled Backup can not handle multiple tapes.

[Son Le]

I see...so what do you guys suggest me do? I think we have been using these tapes for the past year or so. We have about 10 dds tapes. Should I buy another set of 10 dds tapes?? Thanks so much for you guys help. I'm a newbie with HP-UX.

[Son Le]

I also have one question, how would I do a ignite backup recover tape?? what steps do I need to take in order to do that? Thanks

[Frank Slootweg]

The tape is full and you can use only one tape per backup, so buying extra tapes in not going to help.

You can however set up two partial backups which each use a tape, i.e. for example the first of everything except some large filesystem and the second for only that large filesystem. Of course you will have to run these backups on different nights because you will have to change tapes in between.

I will leave the Ignite-UX question to others.

[Son Le]

how is it that it was backing up fine for the last 6 months or so using the same tapes over and over?? I just don't understand why its failing now? It started happening after the fatal system error of deleting the /usr folder. Then after getting the system back up and setting the permission in that folder that the system booted back up. Ever since then the backup started to failed. It didn't start failing until a week after. In the emails, it states that some tapes were used 15 times plus or minus times. We have 10 tapes labeled mon #1-fri #1 and mon #2 - fri #2. I just want an explanation why it just started to failed. Can you please explain that to me, thanks. I appreciate all your help. Thank you.

[Frank Slootweg]

> how is it that it was backing up fine for the last 6 months or so using the same tapes over and over??

It is really rather simple: Before, the tape was not full, so the backup did not fail. Now the tape is full, so the backup fails.

Probably some of the files got a little bit bigger or/and you got some more files.

[Son Le]

silly me...i forgot we did a test envirnoment around that time also and that created a big chunk of data which would cause the tape to be full. I'm so dumb, I totally fogot about that, I apologized and thank everyone for their help. I learned a great deal about exit error and backup. I appreciate all your time in dealing with this matter. Have a wonderful holiday. take care.

[Son Le]

Hi...I have a couple of more question concerning backing up. How do I modify the automated full backup so that I can include a directory in the excluded section of the automated backups. I want it to do a full backup but not the test environment. I tried to go into the automated backup in SAM and select the one that does full backup but it doesn't allow me to edit it. I want to exclude a directory in it. Can someone please tell me how I can do that?? Aslo what are the steps to take to make a ignite recovery tape. Thanks.

[Son Le]

please disregard the last message. I would like to know how to make a ignite recovery tape though. Thanks for any info.

[Robert-Jan Goossens]

Hi,

You can download the latest version at

http://software.hp.com/products/IUX/download.html

After installation, put an empty tape in the drive
# /opt/ignite/bin/make_tape_recovery -x inc_entire=vg00 -I -v -a /dev/rmt/0mn

This will create a bootable tape.

PS. only VG00