Re: Transferring dump file to tape?
On Mon, May 16, 2005 at 11:36:18AM -0500, Viren Patel wrote: Hello. I am using 'dump' to backup client filesystems to a disk file on an NFS mounted partition, e.g. dump -0aLu -f /bk/var-20050516 /var Now I'd like to take the backup file (var-200500516) and move it to tape (on the NFS server). However I'd like the tape to have the data just as if it had been created directly by 'dump', e.g. dump -0aLu -f /dev/nsa0 /var Any way to do this? You can use dd to write a file to a device (e.g. tape). Kris I thought so too, but it doesn't work. When I issue dd if=var-20050516 of=/dev/nsa0 I get the following error: dd: /dev/nsa0: Invalid argument 1+0 records in 0+0 records out 0 bytes transferred in 0.000786 secs (0 bytes/sec) Since 'dump' works with /dev/nsa0 I am not sure what the problem is. I would expect the dd to work also. You may need to do something with blocksize. But, we see that error a lot on different machines while attempting to write a file to a tape. We have code that opens the drive and writes directly to it, other places that attempt to use dd and also some places that try to cat to the drive. All of them work most of the time, but fail consistently on some machines that appear to be otherwise identical. We have resorted to numerous tricks to write to a tape on a system that is failing, usually to no avail. The error you report is the one we see with dd. I generally don't see any other console message or anything that shows in a dmesg. I would very much like to see someone who really knows about writing tapes respond to this. I have begun to be suspicious that there is something weird about the the sa driver or something along the line, but don't know enough to really dig it out. I posted some questions around 3 years ago, but got no response. By the way, this has occurred in various versions of FreeBSD from around 3.2 through 4.9. I haven't experimented with it on 5.xx yet. jerry Viren Thanks for your input. As per Kris' suggestion adding the blocksize worked for me. 'mt' reports my tapedrive having a blocksize of 1024 bytes (1k), so my command was dd if=var-200501516 of=/dev/nsa0 bs=1k I transfered the dump file to tape and then was able to restore directly from tape. My test dump file was small (140K) but today I plan to test with a full-size multi-gigabyte dump file. I haven't played long with dd to judge its reliability. While I was looking around, I also came across sdd (/usr/ports/sysutils/sdd), which claims to be a better dd replacement. Viren ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Transferring dump file to tape?
Any way to do this? You can use dd to write a file to a device (e.g. tape). Kris I thought so too, but it doesn't work. When I issue dd if=var-20050516 of=/dev/nsa0 I get the following error: dd: /dev/nsa0: Invalid argument 1+0 records in 0+0 records out 0 bytes transferred in 0.000786 secs (0 bytes/sec) Since 'dump' works with /dev/nsa0 I am not sure what the problem is. I would expect the dd to work also. You may need to do something with blocksize. But, we see that error a lot on different machines while attempting to write a file to a tape. We have code that opens the drive and ... avail. The error you report is the one we see with dd. I generally don't see any other console message or anything that shows in a dmesg. I would very much like to see someone who really knows about writing tapes respond to this. I have begun to be suspicious that there is something weird about the the sa driver or something along the line, but don't know enough to really dig it out. I posted some questions around 3 years ago, but got no response. By the way, this has occurred in various versions of FreeBSD from around 3.2 through 4.9. I haven't experimented with it on 5.xx yet. jerry Viren Thanks for your input. As per Kris' suggestion adding the blocksize worked for me. 'mt' reports my tapedrive having a blocksize of 1024 bytes (1k), so my command was dd if=var-200501516 of=/dev/nsa0 bs=1k I transfered the dump file to tape and then was able to restore directly from tape. My test dump file was small (140K) but today I plan to test with a full-size multi-gigabyte dump file. I haven't played long with dd to judge its reliability. While I was looking around, I also came across sdd (/usr/ports/sysutils/sdd), which claims to be a better dd replacement. Adjusting the blocksize was my suggestion. But, even doing that doesn't fix the problem we often see with writes to tape failing in that manner. dd itself is reliable. It is tried and true. I think our failures come from something in the sa driver because a drive that fails usually fails for everything except maybe tar and dump. I wonder what is better about sdd. Guess I should look at it. jerry Viren ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Transferring dump file to tape?
On Tue, May 17, 2005 at 08:59:36AM -0400, Jerry McAllister wrote: Thanks for your input. As per Kris' suggestion adding the blocksize worked for me. 'mt' reports my tapedrive having a blocksize of 1024 bytes (1k), so my command was dd if=var-200501516 of=/dev/nsa0 bs=1k I transfered the dump file to tape and then was able to restore directly from tape. My test dump file was small (140K) but today I plan to test with a full-size multi-gigabyte dump file. I haven't played long with dd to judge its reliability. While I was looking around, I also came across sdd (/usr/ports/sysutils/sdd), which claims to be a better dd replacement. Adjusting the blocksize was my suggestion. Also mine :0 But, even doing that doesn't fix the problem we often see with writes to tape failing in that manner. dd itself is reliable. It is tried and true. I think our failures come from something in the sa driver because a drive that fails usually fails for everything except maybe tar and dump. Are you absolutely certain that the tape device is not in use at the time that the application receives the error? Kris pgpBA6Oi8GhYQ.pgp Description: PGP signature
Re: Transferring dump file to tape?
But, even doing that doesn't fix the problem we often see with writes to tape failing in that manner.=20 =20 dd itself is reliable. It is tried and true. I think our failures come from something in the sa driver because a drive that fails usually fails for everything except maybe tar and dump. Are you absolutely certain that the tape device is not in use at the time that the application receives the error? Yes. It can even happen in single user. So far I have only had the problem with various levels of DAT tapes. It has never failed that way with DLTs. jerry Kris ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Transferring dump file to tape?
On Mon, May 16, 2005 at 11:36:18AM -0500, Viren Patel wrote: Hello. I am using 'dump' to backup client filesystems to a disk file on an NFS mounted partition, e.g. dump -0aLu -f /bk/var-20050516 /var Now I'd like to take the backup file (var-200500516) and move it to tape (on the NFS server). However I'd like the tape to have the data just as if it had been created directly by 'dump', e.g. dump -0aLu -f /dev/nsa0 /var Any way to do this? I could use rdump/rmt to backup directly to the remote tape, but I am doing it this way to do fast disk-based backups during night and move to slower tapes during day. For normal restores I can use NFS-based files but have tapes for single-user-mode type restores. Thanks. You can use dd to write a file to a device (e.g. tape). Kris pgpwby94thLL4.pgp Description: PGP signature
Re: Transferring dump file to tape?
On Mon, May 16, 2005 at 11:36:18AM -0500, Viren Patel wrote: Hello. I am using 'dump' to backup client filesystems to a disk file on an NFS mounted partition, e.g. dump -0aLu -f /bk/var-20050516 /var Now I'd like to take the backup file (var-200500516) and move it to tape (on the NFS server). However I'd like the tape to have the data just as if it had been created directly by 'dump', e.g. dump -0aLu -f /dev/nsa0 /var Any way to do this? I could use rdump/rmt to backup directly to the remote tape, but I am doing it this way to do fast disk-based backups during night and move to slower tapes during day. For normal restores I can use NFS-based files but have tapes for single-user-mode type restores. Thanks. You can use dd to write a file to a device (e.g. tape). Kris I thought so too, but it doesn't work. When I issue dd if=var-20050516 of=/dev/nsa0 I get the following error: dd: /dev/nsa0: Invalid argument 1+0 records in 0+0 records out 0 bytes transferred in 0.000786 secs (0 bytes/sec) Since 'dump' works with /dev/nsa0 I am not sure what the problem is. Viren ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Transferring dump file to tape?
On Mon, May 16, 2005 at 01:52:18PM -0500, Viren Patel wrote: On Mon, May 16, 2005 at 11:36:18AM -0500, Viren Patel wrote: Hello. I am using 'dump' to backup client filesystems to a disk file on an NFS mounted partition, e.g. dump -0aLu -f /bk/var-20050516 /var Now I'd like to take the backup file (var-200500516) and move it to tape (on the NFS server). However I'd like the tape to have the data just as if it had been created directly by 'dump', e.g. dump -0aLu -f /dev/nsa0 /var Any way to do this? I could use rdump/rmt to backup directly to the remote tape, but I am doing it this way to do fast disk-based backups during night and move to slower tapes during day. For normal restores I can use NFS-based files but have tapes for single-user-mode type restores. Thanks. You can use dd to write a file to a device (e.g. tape). Kris I thought so too, but it doesn't work. When I issue dd if=var-20050516 of=/dev/nsa0 I get the following error: dd: /dev/nsa0: Invalid argument 1+0 records in 0+0 records out 0 bytes transferred in 0.000786 secs (0 bytes/sec) Since 'dump' works with /dev/nsa0 I am not sure what the problem is. You need to specify a block size compatible with your tape drive, e.g. 32k. Kris pgpOnE0EHH2J7.pgp Description: PGP signature
Re: Transferring dump file to tape?
On Mon, May 16, 2005 at 01:52:18PM -0500, Viren Patel wrote: On Mon, May 16, 2005 at 11:36:18AM -0500, Viren Patel wrote: Hello. I am using 'dump' to backup client filesystems to a disk file on an NFS mounted partition, e.g. dump -0aLu -f /bk/var-20050516 /var Now I'd like to take the backup file (var-200500516) and move it to tape (on the NFS server). However I'd like the tape to have the data just as if it had been created directly by 'dump', e.g. dump -0aLu -f /dev/nsa0 /var Any way to do this? I could use rdump/rmt to backup directly to the remote tape, but I am doing it this way to do fast disk-based backups during night and move to slower tapes during day. For normal restores I can use NFS-based files but have tapes for single-user-mode type restores. Thanks. You can use dd to write a file to a device (e.g. tape). Kris I thought so too, but it doesn't work. When I issue dd if=var-20050516 of=/dev/nsa0 I get the following error: dd: /dev/nsa0: Invalid argument 1+0 records in 0+0 records out 0 bytes transferred in 0.000786 secs (0 bytes/sec) Since 'dump' works with /dev/nsa0 I am not sure what the problem is. You need to specify a block size compatible with your tape drive, e.g. 32k. Kris doh! Thanks. Viren ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Transferring dump file to tape?
On Mon, May 16, 2005 at 11:36:18AM -0500, Viren Patel wrote: Hello. I am using 'dump' to backup client filesystems to a disk file on an NFS mounted partition, e.g. dump -0aLu -f /bk/var-20050516 /var Now I'd like to take the backup file (var-200500516) and move it to tape (on the NFS server). However I'd like the tape to have the data just as if it had been created directly by 'dump', e.g. dump -0aLu -f /dev/nsa0 /var Any way to do this? You can use dd to write a file to a device (e.g. tape). Kris I thought so too, but it doesn't work. When I issue dd if=var-20050516 of=/dev/nsa0 I get the following error: dd: /dev/nsa0: Invalid argument 1+0 records in 0+0 records out 0 bytes transferred in 0.000786 secs (0 bytes/sec) Since 'dump' works with /dev/nsa0 I am not sure what the problem is. I would expect the dd to work also. You may need to do something with blocksize. But, we see that error a lot on different machines while attempting to write a file to a tape. We have code that opens the drive and writes directly to it, other places that attempt to use dd and also some places that try to cat to the drive. All of them work most of the time, but fail consistently on some machines that appear to be otherwise identical. We have resorted to numerous tricks to write to a tape on a system that is failing, usually to no avail. The error you report is the one we see with dd. I generally don't see any other console message or anything that shows in a dmesg. I would very much like to see someone who really knows about writing tapes respond to this. I have begun to be suspicious that there is something weird about the the sa driver or something along the line, but don't know enough to really dig it out. I posted some questions around 3 years ago, but got no response. By the way, this has occurred in various versions of FreeBSD from around 3.2 through 4.9. I haven't experimented with it on 5.xx yet. jerry Viren ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
