Topic: Tape Problems

[Paul van Dun]

Hello Everyone,

Today I've installed E-Smith 5.5 on my server, and I've also replaced the HP Colorado 8GB (IDE) for a HP 1537A (12/24 DDS3 DAT Drive) attached to a Qlogic SCSI controller, all modules are loaded correctly because the drive is recognized by E-Smith.
After a succesfull installation I tried the backup procedure at 19.45 after checking the logfiles I found this output, /dev/nst0 Input/output error ???
So I've checked my tapes with the command flexbackup -newtape but all come out with the message: /dev/nst0 Input/output error.
So I've test run the tape in a win98 box but this works fine leaving me thinking that my drive and tapes are OK.
Could this be a problem with the blocksize e.g. or another setting, I've already used the setting on myezserver.com to perform an erase before backing up.
The funny part is on my work I use a DAT 12/24 GB and a 20/40 DAT drive on both my servers and the perform very well.


Looking forward to your replies.


Best regards.


Paul van Dun



Viewed at Wed Jul 3 23:32:37 2002.
|------------------------------------------------
| Doing level 0 backup of all using dump
| Retensioning tape...
| Rewinding & erasing tape...
/dev/nst0: Input/output error
| Creating index key 200207031946.35
| Tape #0
| Filesystems = / /boot
|------------------------------------------------
At block 1.
|------------------------------------------------
| File number 1, index key 200207031946.35
| Backup of: /
| Date of this level 0 backup: Wed Jul 03 19:49:07 2002
| Date of last level 0 backup: the epoch
|------------------------------------------------
| (dump -0 -b 10 -a -f - / | gzip -4) | buffer -m 3m -s 10k -u 100 -t -p 75 -B \
|  -o /dev/nst0
|------------------------------------------------
  DUMP: Date of this level 0 dump: Wed Jul  3 19:49:07 2002
  DUMP: Dumping /dev/hda6 (/) to standard output
  DUMP: Added inode 7 to exclude list (resize inode)
  DUMP: Label: /
  DUMP: mapping (Pass I) [regular files]
  DUMP: mapping (Pass II) [directories]
  DUMP: estimated 460644 tape blocks.
  DUMP: Volume 1 started with block 1 at: Wed Jul  3 19:53:15 2002
  DUMP: dumping (Pass III) [directories]
  DUMP: dumping (Pass IV) [regular files]
buffer (writer): write of data failed: Input/output error
bytes to write=10240, bytes written=-1, total written          0K
  DUMP: Broken pipe
  DUMP: The ENTIRE dump is aborted.
|------------------------------------------------
| Backup start: Wed Jul 03 19:49:07 2002
| Backup end:   Wed Jul 03 19:53:41 2002
|------------------------------------------------
/dev/nst0: Input/output error
|------------------------------------------------
| File number 2, index key 200207031946.35
| Backup of: /boot
| Date of this level 0 backup: Wed Jul 03 19:53:51 2002
| Date of last level 0 backup: the epoch
|------------------------------------------------
| (dump -0 -b 10 -a -f - /boot | gzip -4) | buffer -m 3m -s 10k -u 100 -t -p \
|  75 -B -o /dev/nst0
|------------------------------------------------
  DUMP: Date of this level 0 dump: Wed Jul  3 19:53:51 2002
  DUMP: Dumping /dev/hda1 (/boot) to standard output
  DUMP: Added inode 7 to exclude list (resize inode)
  DUMP: Label: /boot
  DUMP: mapping (Pass I) [regular files]
  DUMP: mapping (Pass II) [directories]
  DUMP: estimated 2972 tape blocks.
  DUMP: Volume 1 started with block 1 at: Wed Jul  3 19:53:51 2002
  DUMP: dumping (Pass III) [directories]
  DUMP: dumping (Pass IV) [regular files]
  DUMP: Volume 1 completed at: Wed Jul  3 19:53:53 2002
  DUMP: Volume 1 2960 tape blocks (2.89MB)
  DUMP: Volume 1 took 0:00:02
  DUMP: Volume 1 transfer rate: 1480 kB/s
  DUMP: 2960 tape blocks (2.89MB)
  DUMP: finished in 2 seconds, throughput 1480 kBytes/sec
  DUMP: Date of this level 0 dump: Wed Jul  3 19:53:51 2002
  DUMP: Date this dump completed:  Wed Jul  3 19:53:53 2002
  DUMP: Average transfer rate: 1480 kB/s
  DUMP: DUMP IS DONE
buffer (writer): write of data failed: Input/output error
bytes to write=10240, bytes written=-1, total written          0K
|------------------------------------------------
| Backup start: Wed Jul 03 19:53:51 2002
| Backup end:   Wed Jul 03 19:53:53 2002
|------------------------------------------------
/dev/nst0: Input/output error
|------------------------------------------------
| Rewinding...
|------------------------------------------------

[Des Dougan]

Paul,

Without taking the tape out, try your backup again. I think you will find it works this time. There is a bug which I opened a while back with Mitel. I have a Seagate Travan Hornet drive, and have the same issue you do. From your flexbackup output, you can see that the tape is at block 1:

| Tape #0
| Filesystems = / /boot
|------------------------------------------------
At block 1.
|------------------------------------------------
| File number 1, index key 200207031946.35
| Backup of: /
| Date of this level 0 backup: Wed Jul 03 19:49:07 2002

When I run the backup the second time, it's at block 256, and the backup works (I also see an i/o error the same as yours).

I think that flexbackup has a bug of some sort, but I'm still waiting on feedback on the strace I provided the bugs list.

Des Dougan

[Paulvan Dun]

Hello Des,

So if I understand you correctly, I can't use the automated backup function in the control panel with this drive ?
Must I use the command /sbin/e-smith/backup to initiate imediate backup or is there another command.
Have tried you're drive also with Taper or is there another backup program to be used with E-Smith.
I really like to use flexbackup because then I can use the restore now function from myezserver, the problem was with the ide drive that it's capacity was to small so I've bought this drive to enlarge capacity.



Regards,


Paul van Dun

[Des Dougan]

Paulvan Dun wrote:
>
> So if I understand you correctly, I can't use the automated
> backup function in the control panel with this drive ?

You can - the automated backup executes /sbin/e-smith/backup via cron. What you could do (once you've confirmed what I said will work for you!) is create a second, earlier cron.d entry (via the template) which will fail when run. Then when the second runs, it should run OK (at least, per my experience here).

> Have tried you're drive also with Taper or is there another
> backup program to be used with E-Smith.

Taper doesn't run properly with backups greater than 4 GB. There are other solutions out there, some of which are commercial. There was a thread on this about a month ago on one of the forums.

> I really like to use flexbackup because then I can use the
> restore now function from myezserver, the problem was with
> the ide drive that it's capacity was to small so I've bought
> this drive to enlarge capacity.

Well, hopefully the Mitel people will be able to resolve this problem  sooner rather than later...


Des

[Paulvan Dun]

Hello Des,


I've been playing around with the drive and I've searched the net, and on a usergroup on the HP site the were some issues regarding my drive (c1537a), they mentioned that the drive should connected to a adaptec 2940U2W controller because of it's better performance over the Qlogic card, After installing the drive on a pc with this card the backup worked for the fist time perfectly, so I'll will testdrive it during the weekend, and I'll let you know what my findings are.
I've to keep it short because I'm busy working at the moment, so tonight when I come home the 3rd backup should be completed on the testserver.


Have a nice weekend  !!!


Paul van Dun

[Paul van Dun]

Hello Des,

I'm still testing but I think I've found a solution, in the file cron.d I've added a line in between the line that the console makes when you enable tape backup.
The line I've added is the following:

15 19 * * * root flexbackup -newtape

This erases the tape and makes a new index on the tape the reminder message is sent at 19.10 and the backup starts at 19.20.
I didn't set the option erase_rewind_only false according to the flexbackup-howto because the line I've added takes care of this.
My test server made two succesfull backups on different dates, and I'm waiting for the third to start, I'll let you know how this topic will end.


Regards,

Paul van Dun
The Netherlands