BACKUP-F-CLUSTER Problem

[Alvescot]

Hi All,

I have a DS20 (not even an “E”) – and a SuperDLT.. I’m trying to restore the system disk from a DS25…

And I am getting

BACKUP-S-NEWSAVESET, now beginning save set STANDA.BCK

BACKUP-F-CLUSTER, Unsuitable cluster factor for DRA0:

Now, this happens if I’m booted Standalone from dra4 (7.1) or from the CD (7.3)

I’ve tried initing with different cluster sizes, but no joy.

Anyone know how I can restore this saveset. I don't have phsical access to these systems so this is haveing to be done remotely.

[Karl Rohwedder]

Is the new target disk different from the original disk on terms of size?
BACKUP tries to init the disk with the parameters from the original source disk.
You may try to INIT the target disk manually with a suitable clusterfactor and then do a BACKUP/IMAGE/NOINIT (You may skip the /CLUSTER qualifier and INIT calculates a default value).

Do a HELP INIT/CLUSTER to get more information about the valid ranges.

regardsKalle

[Andy Bustamante]

I would confirm that your cd is the 7.3 media and the correct unit was booted. The minimum cluster was based on disk capacity prior to 7.2. Starting with 7.2, VMS supports smaller cluster size.

If you're managing this remotely, double check the boot unit and the version of VMS on CD.

On another note, if you're restoring the image from a different system, please make sure the licensing details are properly managed.


Andy

[Jan van den Ende]

Warrior,

I can confirm that Kalle gave the solution, where Andy gave the reason.

But there is a little more. The default cluster size will probably be unconveniently large. And since a system disk tends to have quite a few small files, this will be a nuisance. Above that, it will probably NOT by a multiple of 4 (better still: 8), which it should be for reasons of IO performance.
Furthermore, there now exists the /LIMIT qualifier for INIT, which will later-on give you the possibility to extend the disksize without taking it down. Applicable for SAN disks, as well as shadowed disks which can have a bigger member added, the small one removed, and $ SET VOLUME/SIZE to make the new size available.

Summing:
do a INIT of your target disk, specifying /CLUSTER as a small multiple of 4 or 8, and a /LIMIT of where max can be 1 TB if cluster >= 9
/NoHighwater is probably also advisable.
(use HELP INIT for any possible other useful params)
Then do a BACKUP/IMAGE/NOINIT to that disk.

Success!

Proost.

Have one on me.

jpe

[Robert Gezelter]

VMS Warrior,

How is the disk connected to the system? Is this a directly attached disk? Or is it attached via a SAN?

- Bob Gezelter, http://www.rlgsc.com

[EdgarZamora]

Regarding the use of /LIMIT on the INITIALIZE command, you can only do that on 7.3-2 or higher.

Also, if you init the disk with /LIMIT and then do a restore with BACKUP/NOINIT/IMAGE you lose the DVE of the volume and you need to mount the volume privately and do a SET VOL /LIMIT. (I think this is fixed in a patch or later version of VMS).

Have a nice weekend...

Edgar

[Alvescot]

Hi Thanks to all who replied to this post.

We were unable to get this saveset to restore, we believe this is probably to do with it being created by VMS7.3-2 then trying to restore with a lower version of VMS.

We have imaged disk to disk and moved the disk to the other system to get round the problem.

Thanks again to all who posted.

[Alvescot]

Imaged disk to disk to resolve problem