Topic: Tape Backup Not Working

[Jason]

I am having trouble with my tape backup it appears from the log that it is not backing up to the tape. Can sombody please tell me if it is working or not and how to restore specific files instead of just a complete restore. Thanks

flexbackup version 0.9.8
/etc/flexbackup.conf syntax OK

|------------------------------------------------
| Trying "mt defblksize" instead of "mt setblk"
| Doing level 0 backup of all using dump
| Retensioning tape...
| Rewinding & erasing tape...
| Creating index key 200305210203.34
| Tape #0
| Filesystems = / /boot
|------------------------------------------------
At block 64.
|------------------------------------------------
| File number 1, index key 200305210203.34
| Backup of: /
| Date of this level 0 backup: Wed May 21 02:03:34 2003
| 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 May 21 02:03:34 2003
  DUMP: Dumping /dev/md1 (/) 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 502317 tape blocks.
  DUMP: Volume 1 started with block 1 at: Wed May 21 02:11:22 2003
  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         30K
  DUMP: Broken pipe
  DUMP: The ENTIRE dump is aborted.
|------------------------------------------------
| Backup start: Wed May 21 02:03:34 2003
| Backup end:   Wed May 21 02:12:25 2003
|------------------------------------------------
At block 64.
|------------------------------------------------
| File number 2, index key 200305210203.34
| Backup of: /boot
| Date of this level 0 backup: Wed May 21 02:12:35 2003
| 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 May 21 02:12:35 2003
  DUMP: Dumping /dev/md0 (/boot) to standard output
  DUMP: Added inode 7 to exclude list (resize inode)
  DUMP: Label: /boot1
  DUMP: mapping (Pass I) [regular files]
  DUMP: mapping (Pass II) [directories]
  DUMP: estimated 5894 tape blocks.
  DUMP: Volume 1 started with block 1 at: Wed May 21 02:12:36 2003
  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 May 21 02:12:35 2003
| Backup end:   Wed May 21 02:12:39 2003
|------------------------------------------------
At block 64.
|------------------------------------------------
| Rewinding...
| Compressing log (all.0.20030521.gz)
| Linking all.latest.gz -> all.0.20030521.gz
|------------------------------------------------

File  Contents    (tape index 200305210203.34)
-----------------------------------------------
0  
1   level 0 / Wed May 21 02:03:34 2003 dump+gzip from SERVER
2   level 0 /boot Wed May 21 02:12:35 2003 dump+gzip from SERVER

[Lloyd Keen]

It could be a crook tape or maybe the drive needs cleaning. Have a look here for info on how to do a selective restore. http://mirror.contribs.org/smeserver/contribs/dmay/mitel/howto/flexbackup-howto.html

[Jason]

It is a brand new drive and i have tried 2 brand new tapes but thanks for the suggestion

[Niels Leeuwis]

Jason wrote:
>
> I am having trouble with my tape backup it appears from the
> log that it is not backing up to the tape. Can sombody please

The dump of the report looks familiar, I have a simular problem, in short I narrowed it down to the tapestreamer not responding to the mt -f /dev/nst0 rewind command.

What I see happening is the following:
- Inserting a brand new tape, backup runs fine (scheduled).
- Not touching the tape the next scheduled back-up aborts with a broken pipe.
- Running mt commands at that stage also fail.
- Ejecting the tape I see it's not rewinded.
- Inserting another (new or rewinded) tape no problem again.

So far I
- Changed the SCSI terminator
- Cleaned the drive a few times
- Bought a few brand new tapes
- Ran the HP test software (indicated everything working fine)

(Did I mension I Use a HP surestore DAT 8 (DDS2) with Mitel 5.6 )

At this stage I want to do a few more tests:
- rewinding the last back-up tape (last night) in another tape drive and try a
  restore to verify data integrity
- place the tape drive in a WIN 98SE machine and see if I can reproduce
  the problem (excluding mechanical failures for certain)

At this point I'm suspecting the mt command (also used by flexbackup)

Any thoughts on this are welcome, I'll report back if I have some more results on the problem (propably half next week.

Regards

Niels

[Niels Leeuwis]

Jason wrote:
>
> I am having trouble with my tape backup it appears from the
> log that it is not backing up to the tape. Can sombody please

The dump of the report looks familiar, I have a simular problem, in short I narrowed it down to the tapestreamer not responding to the mt -f /dev/nst0 rewind command.

What I see happening is the following:
- Inserting a brand new tape, backup runs fine (scheduled).
- Not touching the tape the next scheduled back-up aborts with a broken pipe.
- Running mt commands at that stage also fail.
- Ejecting the tape I see it's not rewinded.
- Inserting another (new or rewinded) tape no problem again.

So far I
- Changed the SCSI terminator
- Cleaned the drive a few times
- Bought a few brand new tapes
- Ran the HP test software (indicated everything working fine)

(Did I mension I Use a HP surestore DAT 8 (DDS2) with Mitel 5.6 )

At this stage I want to do a few more tests:
- rewinding the last back-up tape (last night) in another tape drive and try a
  restore to verify data integrity
- place the tape drive in a WIN 98SE machine and see if I can reproduce
  the problem (excluding mechanical failures for certain)

At this point I'm suspecting the mt command (also used by flexbackup)

Any thoughts on this are welcome, I'll report back if I have some more results on the problem (propably half next week.

Regards

Niels

[jason]

still having trouble with the backup drive. Tried a new tape and still same error message. Tried the tape backup drive in win machine and backed up ok. Has anybody had any troubles with an ide segate 20/40 drive in the sme

[philippe peltier]

I got a problem very similar with my seagate tr5 st20000 ide tape.
I found that it came from the ide cable I used; I used it on a ultra ata 80wire cable, and got plenty of problems, it did not work well with mt, identified incorrectly, etc.. I changed to a standard 40 wires ide cable, and everything went right...
If it can help...

--
Phil.

[jason]

Thanks I will give that a try it is on a ultra ata cable

[Niels Leeuwis]

Hello,

As promised the last part of my experiences, sadly I'm not able to help Jason with his problem, as it turned out that the tape drive I was using was bad.... I put in another drive and now everything works fine.....

Strange thing was that the HP surestore DAT 8 streamer I was using worked fine with short DDS2 tapes (15 meters) buit refused the normal length (120 meters) of tape.

Niels