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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amverify

AMVERIFY(8)						      System Manager's Manual						       AMVERIFY(8)

NAME

       amverify - check an Amanda tape for errors

SYNOPSIS

       amverify config [ slot [ runtapes ] ]

DESCRIPTION

       Amverify  reads	an  Amanda  format  tape  and makes sure each backup image can be processed by amrestore and, if possible, the appropriate
       restore program (e.g. tar).

       Amverify runs amrestore on each file of the tape and pipes the output to a restore program (if available) with an option to create a  cata-
       logue of the backup.  The catalogue itself is discarded.  Only the success or failure of the operation itself is reported.

       If  the	backup image cannot be processed by the restore program, e.g. if it was written on a different operating system, the image is sent
       through dd to /dev/null.  This still determines if the tape is readable, but does not do any internal consistency check on the image.

       If config is set up to use a tape changer, the slot argument may be used to choose the first tape to process.  Otherwise, the current  slot
       is used.

       The runtapes configuration parameter determines how many tapes are processed unless it is specified on the command line.

       See the amanda(8) man page for more details about Amanda.

AUTHOR

       Axel Zinser <fifi@icem.de>

SEE ALSO

       amrestore(8), amanda(8), amverifyrun(8)

																       AMVERIFY(8)