Tar/Tapes: Can somebody explain this to me......


 
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Top Forums UNIX for Advanced & Expert Users Tar/Tapes: Can somebody explain this to me......
# 1  
Old 03-08-2004
Tar/Tapes: Can somebody explain this to me......

Hey Folks,

Can somebody please explain what the crack is with this problem.

I have a backup folder in /var which contains 4 rsync'd server folders:

server08
server15
server16
server18

They all contain the etc folder from the server, and other important data I need to backup.

To send them to tape I have been using: (cd'ing to /var first)

tar -cv -b 16384 -f /dev/nst0 backup/ > /var/log/backup/tapebackup/BACKUP_`date +%Y%m%d`.log 2> /var/log/backup/tapebackup/BACKUP_`date +%Y%m%d`.log

Now, according to my logs, the backup went fine and everything went to plan.

However, If I do a

tar -t -b 16384 -f /dev/nst0

To list the contents of the tape, it firstly says

tar: This does not look like a tar archive
tar: Skipping to next header
tar: Archive contains obsolescent base-64 headers


And then it goes on to list the contents of the tape. However, it does NOT list the server15 folder and all its contents, and misses out some of server16

Now according to my backup logs, they backed up in the following order:

server15
server16
server18
server08

And when I list the contents I get:

Half of server16
server18
server08

And no server15. How come? Its driving me nuts! Does anybody know what I am doing wrong? Why are they backing up in that order? And whats happened to my server15!?!?

Thanks for any help!

P.S. This has been driving me nuts for weeks now. If I cant get it working I will have to give up on using tar and try using cpio. However cpio scares the hell out of me, and if anyone could give me a quick run down on how I would put together a cpio command for the above I would be forever grateful
# 2  
Old 03-08-2004
What version of unix? On my version of unix -b 16384 requests a block size of 8,388,608 bytes. Maybe you mean -b 32 which would request a block size of 16,384?

In any event, I would tone down the block size and see where that leaves me.
# 3  
Old 03-09-2004
Thanks for help

I'm new to all this! I'm just erasing the tapes now and i'll give it a go using a blocksize of 32 instead of 16384 and I'll let you know!
Login or Register to Ask a Question

Previous Thread | Next Thread

10 More Discussions You Might Find Interesting

1. UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Explain difference of tar command

Hello All, I have been seeing a weird(at least for me, at this point) issue with a specific tar command. 1st fashion) Normally, if i have to tar anything at the command line I tend to use tar -cvzf <tar-file_name.tgz> <directory_to_be_tarred> this command works perfectly fine with out... (1 Reply)
Discussion started by: getnetha
1 Replies

2. AIX

Moving tapes

Hello, anybody out there that is using itdt to manage tape changes in a tape library. The help of itdt show a move subcommand but I can't get it to work. Env: AIX5.3 Dell PowerVault TL2000 tape library -> rmt1 Available 01-08-02 IBM 3580 Ultrium Tape Drive (FCP) # itdt says it finds the... (3 Replies)
Discussion started by: petervg
3 Replies

3. Shell Programming and Scripting

tar command to explore multiple layers of tar and tar.gz files

Hi all, I have a tar file and inside that tar file is a folder with additional tar.gz files. What I want to do is look inside the first tar file and then find the second tar file I'm looking for, look inside that tar.gz file to find a certain directory. I'm encountering issues by trying to... (1 Reply)
Discussion started by: bashnewbee
1 Replies

4. UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

tar -cvf test.tar `find . -mtime -1 -type f` only tar 1 file

Hi all, 4 files are returned when i issue 'find . -mtime -1 -type f -ls'. ./ora_475244.aud ./ora_671958.aud ./ora_934052.aud ./ora_934050.aud However, when I issued the below command: tar -cvf test.tar `find . -mtime -1 -type f`, the tar file only contains the 1st file -... (2 Replies)
Discussion started by: ahSher
2 Replies

5. Solaris

vxdump with more tapes

Hi Community, I've a V440 Sun Server with 2 device tape of 72GB. I have to backup a folder of 80 GB, so I have to use 2 tapes of 72GB (144 GB); If I use vxdump command which are the options that I have to use? When the first tape finishes does the system stop the backup? Please help me... (1 Reply)
Discussion started by: Sunb3
1 Replies

6. UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Copying DAT tapes

I am looking for a way of making a backup of a system DAT tape onto another DAT tape for security reasons. (0 Replies)
Discussion started by: johnrussell
0 Replies

7. UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

how to tar to multiple tapes

how to tar to multiple tapes (1 Reply)
Discussion started by: sean dixon
1 Replies

8. UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Tapes

:confused: Hello!! I am a new UNIX user, and I need to back up some files, I have some old ones and I have been trying to delete the old information with 'mt erase' but I don't be sure if it works, and 'mt resert' but the it gave a message suggesting me to use 'scsiha -r' (but the last one... (1 Reply)
Discussion started by: scs
1 Replies

9. UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

tapes

is there a command to check unoccupied space on a tape ? AIX 3.2 (1 Reply)
Discussion started by: cubicle^dweller
1 Replies

10. HP-UX

ignite tapes

can any1 tell me how to make ignite tapes for the HP-ux. this company said it was: "make_tape_recovery_A", but that don't work. (4 Replies)
Discussion started by: JBX
4 Replies
Login or Register to Ask a Question