Topic: Flexbackup chokes on Tape Backup

[Jason]

I have a 4.1.2 machine that chokes the first time I do a tape backup.

I get a:

buffer (writer): write of data failed: Input/output error
byters to write=10240, bytes written=-1, total written   0K

the second time I do a backup it works just fine.

I've got a SCSI Ecrix VXA-1 66GB external drive.

What's going on here?

[Walter James]

http://www.mail-archive.com/devinfo@lists.e-smith.org/msg03010.html

[Jason]

This is not a hardware problem.  It's a problem with the server software.  Anybody have this problem?

[Kelvin]

Jason,

Have you tried it with Taper  (as per Darrell May's How-to) ?

I often find when I have problems with flexbackup, taper sometimes have no problems. I actually prefer taper to flex anyway. If it fails in taper as well, it may be that you need to add / change something to get SME to support the VXA properly.

Kelvin

[Jason]

Sure, it works for backups, but the Restore features are the pits...

There is no reason why flexbackup doesn't work the first time and then it works the second time.

This problem should have been address a long time ago by Mitel!

[jb]

Jason,

Would you post your flexbackup.conf file, or send it to me.  I had this problem a long, long time ago, and don't remember what I did to fix it.  Looking at your flexbackup.conf may spark a membrane.

JB

[jb]

Jason,

Would you post your flexbackup.conf file, or send it to me.  I had this problem a long, long time ago, and don't remember what I did to fix it.  Looking at your flexbackup.conf may spark a membrane.

JB

[Jeff C]

This is actually a normal issue with the Ecrix tapes.  

My understanding is that in formating the tapes for a number of different tape drives there is a block at the beginning of each tape that needs to be setup in a certain way.  (I realize this isn't the most definitive answer but my understanding isn't definitive either:>)

The answer is very simple.  Run each tape through the backup process once and then put them into your tape rotation.  They will work perfectly from the second time on.  You could also dd the tapes if you want.

Not an answer but a work-around.....

-Jeff Coleman