too many simultaneous cpios

[Kirk Reindl]

HPUX 10.2/11.0
Server types: T520s

I have been fighting tape backup failures for sometime. My company uses cpio and backs up to a large amount of DDS2 drives on each HP-UX server we have in our enterprise. On average each server has 12 DDS2 drives and we have simultaneous cpios going to each drive. (Don't ask me why we use DDS2 technology.)

We have an intermittant problem where backups are failing with the "unexpected write error number 5" message. Please know I've tried everything to resolve this problem, however it is very hard to isolate and I've chalked the problem to DDS2 technology is miserable.

We have had the drives checked for contaminents. I've had my entire rotation of tapes replaced. When a backup fails the tape looks absolutely fine. The DDS2 drives left on the market are only refurbished. I can't get new ones.

Anyway. Does anyone know if there is a known problem or a document available that states, "Too many cpios may cause a write error."

Any response, (even sarcastic ones) would be appreciated.

Thanks

Kirk Reindl

[John Carr_2]

Hi

I doubt if the cpio's cause the write errors, th drives must be getting quite old now as DDS4 has been around for quite some time.

the simple solution really is to buy a DLT drive to replace the dozen old drives.

good luck
John.

[Dieter Degrendele_1]

I have no idea what your problem might be.

If you have to buy new tape libraries anyway, you should choose for LTO instead of DLT.

[Kevin Wright]

the multiple cpios won't be causing write errors..but like mentioned, they have things called DLT's these days for enterprise backups as apposed to DDS. Your data must not be very important to management huh?

[Kenny Chau]

Have you tried to use new tapes for backup? DDS2 tapes will have problem while the tape had been used for more than 50 times.

Have you tried to use tar or other backup command like fbackup? If yes, any errors while using these backup commands?

Hope this helps.
Kenny.

[Graham Cameron_1]

Errno 5 is not terribly helpful, it is defined (in errno.h) thus:

#define EIO 5 /* I/O error */

Which you already knew!
As well as ditching the DDS2 for DDS4, how about an enterprise backup solution like omniback. If your company won't pay, how about amanda ? http://www.amanda.org/

Graham

[Peter Kloetgen · Accepted solution]

Hi Kirk,

as the others allready told, how about using different backup commands:

man pax (more modern than cpio, is able to read all tar and cpio- formats, exists on all UNIXes, is planned for Linux)
man fbackup (much faster than cpio, the recommended tool to do backups on HP-UX)

--> Thought about installing a commercial backup solution like Omniback? (Very easy to use, company-wide backup management possible)
--> Thought about new hardware, like DLT- drives? (new hardware is much faster and can store more data on a tape.)
(try the dd- command to find out if any hardware error is occuring)

Allways stay on the bright side of life!

Peter