Topic: Is tape backup working?

[Thomas]

I have sme 6.01 setup with a Seagate Traven tape drive connected to an Adaptec 2930U card. When I run a tape backup using the "Backup or Restore" panel in server manager, this is what the flexbackup log from the "View log files" panel in server manager shows:

View log files
   Viewed at Sat 25 Dec 2004 04:12:25 PM EST.
|------------------------------------------------------------
| Doing level 0 backup of set all using tar
| All sets = full (1 tapes)
| Rewinding & erasing tape...
| Creating index key 200412241334
| Backup set full (/ /boot)
| Tape #0
|------------------------------------------------------------
At block 64.
|------------------------------------------------------------
| File number 1, tape index 200412241334
| Backup of: /
| Date of this level 0 backup: Fri Dec 24 13:34:23 2004
| Date of last level 0 backup: the epoch
|------------------------------------------------------------
| cd "/" && find . -depth -xdev ! -type s ! -regex "news/articles" ! -regex
|   ".*~"$ -print0 | tar --create --null --files-from=-
|   --ignore-failed-read --same-permissions --no-recursion --totals --label
|   "level 0 / Fri Dec 24 13:34:23 2004 tar+gzip from sme" --sparse
|   --atime-preserve -b 20 --file - | gzip -4 | buffer -m 3m -s 10k -u 100
|   -t -p 75 -B -o "/dev/nst0"
|------------------------------------------------------------
Total bytes written: 533483520 (509MB, 1.0MB/s)
Kilobytes Out 199750
|------------------------------------------------------------
| Backup start: Fri Dec 24 13:34:23 2004
| Backup end:   Fri Dec 24 13:42:42 2004
|------------------------------------------------------------
At block 491776.
|------------------------------------------------------------
| File number 2, tape index 200412241334
| Backup of: /boot
| Date of this level 0 backup: Fri Dec 24 13:42:52 2004
| Date of last level 0 backup: the epoch
|------------------------------------------------------------
| cd "/boot" && find . -depth -xdev ! -type s ! -regex "news/articles" !
|   -regex ".*~"$ -print0 | tar --create --null --files-from=-
|   --ignore-failed-read --same-permissions --no-recursion --totals --label
|   "level 0 /boot Fri Dec 24 13:42:52 2004 tar+gzip from sme" --sparse
|   --atime-preserve -b 20 --file - | gzip -4 | buffer -m 3m -s 10k -u 100
|   -t -p 75 -B -o "/dev/nst0"
|------------------------------------------------------------
Total bytes written: 10424320 (9.9MB, 1.2MB/s)
Kilobytes Out 5620
|------------------------------------------------------------
| Backup start: Fri Dec 24 13:42:52 2004
| Backup end:   Fri Dec 24 13:43:09 2004
|------------------------------------------------------------
At block 505664.
|------------------------------------------------------------
| Rewinding...
| Removing old level 0 log of all (dated 200410311744)
|------------------------------------------------------------

This is the log created when I use the command line command #flexbackup -list:

| Logging output to "flexbackup.list.200412251520.log"
| Reading from CURRENT TAPE POSITION
|------------------------------------------------------------
At block 0.
|------------------------------------------------------------
| buffer -m 3m -s 10k -u 100 -t -p 75 -B -i "/dev/nst0" | gzip -dq | tar
|   --list --totals  --sparse  -b 20 -B --file -
|------------------------------------------------------------
Kilobytes Out 10

gzip: stdin: not in gzip format
|------------------------------------------------------------
At block 21.
|------------------------------------------------------------


I take this to mean the tape backup is not working. I need help to fix this.

Thanks,
Thomas

[mrjhb3]

edit your flexbackup.conf file and make this change:

$verbose     = 'true';

Then do another backup.

This will give you a verbose listing of what is being backed up.

If you leave this set this way, then the daily backup report that is sent to root will have this verbose listing.  You should be able to tell from there whether you are getting a good backup.  From your post it does look like you are backing up 509MB of data and the 9.9MB of the boot partition.

I get the same error when running flexbackup -list.  But, if I run it again, it starts listing my files.  But, I usually use this script for listing my files.

cd /
mt -f /dev/nst0 rewind
mt -f /dev/nst0 fsf 1
flexbackup -list

GL,

JB

[Thomas]

Against the warning not to (in the flexbackup.conf file comments) I did edit it to change the line $verbose = 'false' to $verbose = 'true'  I saved the changes, then rebooted the server and ran a backup. I then used the server panel "View log files" section to view each of the flexbackup/ entries and it still did not show anymore detail than before.  Do I need to do more than this to get the more detail in the log?

Thanks,
Thomas

[Thomas]

I was reading the "How to use the flexbackup tape program" document (someone suggested I read it in another posting) and I found and implemented the following:
/sbin/e-smith/db configuration setprop flexbackup erase_rewind_only false
/sbin/e-smith/signal-event console-save

The document says "This will set the flexbackup to erase the tape prior to running a backup. This is known to help some hardware configurations where i/o errors are encountered."  It seemed to have helped my setup as I can now do a flexbackup -list and it gives me a long list of files that are on the tape.  I am posting this to help someone else who might come across this problem.

Thanks,
Thomas

[mrjhb3]

This is a copy of my flexbackup.conf file:"

more flexbackup.conf
#------------------------------------------------------------
# DO NOT MODIFY THIS FILE! It is updated automatically by the
# SME Server software. Instead, modify the source template in
# an /etc/e-smith/templates-custom directory. For more
# information, see http://www.e-smith.org/custom/
#
# copyright (C) 1999-2003 Mitel Networks Corporation
#------------------------------------------------------------


$afio_echo_block = 'false';

$afio_compress_threshold = '3';

$afio_compress_cache_size = '2';

$blksize = "10";
$mt_blksize = "0";

$buffer      = 'buffer';  
$buffer_megs = '3';    
$pad_blocks  = 'true';  

$compress    = 'gzip';  
$compr_level = '4';    


$cpio_format = 'newc';


$device  = '/dev/nst0';

$dump_length = '0';

$dump_use_dumpdates = 'false';


$erase_rewind_only = 'true';


$erase_tape_set_level_zero = 'true';


$exclude_expr[0] = 'news/articles';
$exclude_expr[1] = '.*~$';  


$remoteshell = 'ssh';  
$remoteuser = '';      
$label = 'true';        
$verbose     = 'true';  
$sparse      = 'true';  
$indexes     = 'true';  
$atime_preserve = 'true';
$staticfiles = 'false';

$staticlogs = "false";              
$logdir   = "/var/log/flexbackup";  
$stampdir = "/var/state/flexbackup";
$index    = "$stampdir/index";      
$comp_log = "gzip";                  
$prefix   = "";                      
$sprefix  = "";                      
$tmpdir   = "/tmp";                  


$nocompress_types = 'mp3 Z z gz gif zip lha jpeg jpg taz tgz deb rpm bz2';


$tar_echo_record_num = 'false';

$tar_atime_preserve = 'true';


$traverse_fs = 'false';


$set{'full'} = '/ /boot';

$type = 'tar'



The only other difference may be that I am using flexbackup-1.2.1-1

JB