verifiying itanium ignite tapes

[mike_s_brentlinger]

i have a rx4640 running hpux 11.23 that im trying to make and verify ignite tapes for periodically so that i have something to use for recovery if disaster strikes.

so.. I run the following
$make_tape_recovery -v -I -x inc_entire=vg00

which exits successfully and appears to make me an ignite tape just fine

so now i want to verify the tape, and since the system is in production i cant really down the box, boot off a recover cd, walk thru a recovery process. so id like to do the next best thing and verify i can read files off the tape


$mt -f /dev/rmt/0mn rew
$mt -f /dev/rmt/0mn fsf 1
$mt -f /dev/rmt/0mn status
Drive: HP Ultrium 2-SCSI
Format:
Status: [81114000] EOF online compression immediate-report-mode
File: 1
Block: 0
tar -tvf /dev/rmt/0mn
Tar: blocksize = 2
directory checksum error


so i try a ..



$mt -f /dev/rmt/0mn rew
$mt -f /dev/rmt/0mn fsf 1
$mt -f /dev/rmt/0mn status
Drive: HP Ultrium 2-SCSI
Format:
Status: [81114000] EOF online compression immediate-report-mode
File: 1
Block: 0
$tar -tvbf 2 /dev/rmt/0mn
directory checksum error


so i try...


$ mt -f /dev/rmt/0mn rew
$ check_tape_recovery
Generating new list of files
Comparing file lists
/opt/ignite/bin/check_tape_recovery[108]: 13759 Bus error(coredump)


Ive even tried to see if its a cpio archive via
the following which also fails...
cpio -itv < /dev/rmt/0mn


what on earth am i doing wrong? i know the drive is ok, ive tar'ed and untarred on and off that drive and this exact tape with out issue eg:


$mt -f /dev/rmt/0mn rew
$echo test > test.txt
$tar -cvf /dev/rmt/0mn ./test.txt
a ./test.txt 1 blocks
$mt -f /dev/rmt/0mn rew
$rm ./test.txt
$tar -tvf /dev/rmt/0mn
rw-r--r-- 0/3 5 Jan 31 15:29 2006 ./test.txt
$mt -f /dev/rmt/0mn rew
$tar -xvf /dev/rmt/0mn
x ./test.txt, 5 bytes, 1 tape blocks
$cat ./test.txt
test


any help someone could provide would be greatly greatly apprecaited.

[CAS_2]

Try the following:

$ mt -f /dev/rmt/0mn rew
$ mt -f /dev/rmt/0mn fsf 1
$ tar tv

It should display no error message.

[Sameer_Nirmal · Accepted solution]

Hi,

Refer this doc for verification.

http://www1.itrc.hp.com/service/cki/docDisplay.do?docLocale=en_US&docId=200000081003144

[Jeff Schussele]

Hi Mike,

Well I haven't tested on our units in the lab yet, but since 11.23 Itanium tapes aren't bootable, there wouldn't be a LIF on them.
I suspect that m_t_r only puts a tarball, pax image, cpio or a dd dump on them.

This is what I find the most annoying thing about 11.23 IA - the use of a FAT-32 filesystem for the boot area.
Something that cannot be written onto a tape - hence the inability to boot it.

Try a plain old tar -xv w/o the mt fsf 1 after an mt rew. If that doesn't work then try the other methods as well.


Rgds,
Jeff

[Steven E. Protter]

Shalom,

There is in my opinion one way to be sure.

To boot off the tape and use it.

If that means making an appointment at an HP Performance Center, then do it. DR is too important not to practice.

I think this thread response up to now is excellent and I might even use the techniques displayed.

I believe in Ignite because it has saved my servers in the past in real situations and tested out perfectly in HP's Performance Center.

SEP

[mike_s_brentlinger]

First, thanks for all the replies.

Heres my findings thus far. http://www1.itrc.hp.com/service/cki/docDisplay.do?docLocale=en_US&docId=200000
081003144

suggests:
# mt -f /dev/rmt/0mn rew
# mt -f /dev/rmt/0mn fsf 22
# tar -tvf /dev/rmt/0mn

which works! thanks for the referance.

for what its worth.. or those interested Im using Ignite-UX Revision C.6.3.324

In reply to Steven I completly agree that the only way to know for sure is to use it. However this is a production box and Im not afforded that opportunity. I do have an older ignite tape I created a while back believe it to still be ok, however its old, and id like to create periodic new ignite tapes in my backup rotation, but then that gets me back to this is a production box that I cant just down and run a test restore on so Id like to validate the tapes at least appear ok.

[mike_s_brentlinger]

Thanks to all! This forum is excellent as usual