tar problems using Sony AIT drive Post: 302105097

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Top Forums UNIX for Advanced & Expert Users tar problems using Sony AIT drive Post 302105097 by thumper on Tuesday 30th of January 2007 04:02:49 PM

01-30-2007

Registered User

tar problems using Sony AIT drive

Recently we brought up a Spectralogic 2K Tape Library that had been out of service for about 3 years to replace a DDS-4 tape drive unit as our main backup device.
Everything seemed to go fine but now I have run into a little problem.

System details:
FBSD 6.1
SpectraLogic 2K library with a Sony SDX-300 SE tape drive.
Tapes: Sony SDX 1-35C -- 35GB native capacity.
No compression.

I can write and read tapes without a problem as long as I am using a new tape. Since we have only been using this unit for a couple of months almost all of my tapes are new.

Last week I returned a tape into the rotation for the first time and wound up being unable to write all of the files required for the backup -- 22GB of data.

The tape was prepared by running mt -f /dev/sa0 erase and the mt -f /dev/sa0 rewind.
I believe this device automatically rewinds the tape when a tar completes but since I received an error code I was not sure what the tape status would be so I performed the rewind.

Here is my first pass at writing 16 files, ~22 GB, to tape:

troll2[431]# tar -f /dev/sa0 -cvv 26/
a 26
a 26/yoda.2007.01.26.07.45.23.cksum.bz2
a 26/yoda.2007.01.26.07.45.23.tar.bz2
a 26/chewy.2007.01.26.07.43.32.cksum.bz2
a 26/chewy.2007.01.26.07.43.32.tar.bz2
a 26/wssview.2007.01.26.00.10.00.tar.bz2
a 26/vpnauth.2007.01.26.00.10.00.tar.bz2
a 26/util.2007.01.26.00.10.00.tar.bz2
a 26/tdhs_main.2007.01.26.tar.bz2
a 26/siteinformer.2007.01.26.00.10.00.tar.bz2
a 26/ordersys.2007.01.26.00.10.00.tar.bz2: Write error: Operation not permittedWrite error: Operation not permittedtroll2[432]#

I thought that maybe the tape was not fully rewound so I again did
mt -f /dev/sa0 erase and
mt -f /dev/sa0 rewind.

Below is the screenshot of my second pass:

troll2[434]# tar -f /dev/sa0 -cvv 26/
a 26
a 26/yoda.2007.01.26.07.45.23.cksum.bz2
a 26/yoda.2007.01.26.07.45.23.tar.bz2
a 26/chewy.2007.01.26.07.43.32.cksum.bz2: Write error: Operation not supportedWrite error: Operation not supportedtroll2[435]#

At this point I selected a new tape, ran the backup with no problem during the write and tested the tape by performing a full read.

I again mounted the suspect tape and tried to write the files and the result was
troll2[434]# tar -f /dev/sa0 -cvv 26/
a 26
a 26/yoda.2007.01.26.07.45.23.cksum.bz2
a 26/yoda.2007.01.26.07.45.23.tar.bz2
a 26/chewy.2007.01.26.07.43.32.cksum.bz2: Write error: Operation not supportedWrite error: Operation not supportedtroll2[435]#

I have tried this a couple of more times with the same result. (What is that saying about trying the same thing over and over and expecting different results.)

I had a tape that was used to test the tape drive with when we first got the unit so I tried it. The results were identical to those posted above.

Google did not provide any help and I am now officially lost.
Can anyone point to the error of my ways?

Thanks
thumper

thumper

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LEARN ABOUT DEBIAN

read_tape

READ_TAPE(8)						       AFS Command Reference						      READ_TAPE(8)

NAME

       read_tape - Reads volume dumps from a backup tape to a file

SYNOPSIS

       read_tape -tape <tape device>
	  -restore <# of volumes to restore>
	  -skip <# of volumes to skip>
	  -file <filename> [-scan] [-noask] [-label]
	  [-vheaders] [-verbose] [-help]

DESCRIPTION

       read_tape reads an OpenAFS backup tape and prompts for each dump file to save.  This command does not require any OpenAFS infrastructure.
       This command does not need an OpenAFS client or server to be available, which is not the case with the backup(8) command.

       The dump files will be named for the Read/Write name of the volume restored.  After saving each dump file, vos restore or restorevol can be
       used to restore the volume into AFS and non-AFS space respectively.

       read_tape reads the tape while skipping the specified number of volumes.  After that, it restores the specified number of volumes.
       read_tape doesn't rewind the tape so that it may be used multiple times in succession.

OPTIONS

       -tape <tape device>
	   Specifies the tape device from which to restore.

       -restore <# of volumes to restore>
	   Specifies the number of volumes to restore from tape.

       -skip <# of volumes to skip>
	   Specifies the number of volumes to skip before starting the restore.

       -file <filename>
	   Specifies an alternate name for the restored volume dump file rather than the default of the volume name.

       -scan
	   Scans the tape.

       -noask
	   Doesn't prompt for each volume.

       -label
	   Displays the full dump label.

       -vheaders
	   Displays the full volume headers.

       -verbose
	   Produces on the standard output stream a detailed trace of the command's execution.	If this argument is omitted, only warnings and
	   error messages appear.

       -help
	   Prints the online help for this command. All other valid options are ignored.

EXAMPLES

       The following command will read the third through fifth volumes from the tape device /dev/tape without prompting:

	  % read_tape -tape /dev/tape -skip 2 -restore 3 -noask

PRIVILEGE REQUIRED

       The issuer must have access to read and write to the specified tape device.

SEE ALSO

       backup(8), restorevol(1), vos_restore(1)

COPYRIGHT

       Copyright 2007 Jason Edgecombe <jason@rampaginggeek.com>

       This documentation is covered by the BSD License as written in the doc/LICENSE file. This man page was written by Jason Edgecombe for
       OpenAFS.

OpenAFS 							    2012-03-26							      READ_TAPE(8)