Re: [newbie] HP Surestore 5000
ok...now you've really got my curiosity peeked. once you get the files on the tape, how in the world does one browse, find, and then get the Well, tar will do it for you: tar xvf /dev/st0 filespec filespec can be a wildcard selection, or a directory name, just like extracting files from a regular tar file except the tar 'file' is really on the tape instead of a tar archive on the disk. What makes interactive selection difficult is the sequential nature of the tape - you have to read through all of the tape to get the last file on it. dump is supposedly better but I haven't played with it enought to be skilled in its use. It can also be confusing. Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
Re: [newbie] HP Surestore 5000
dfox wrote: I assume /dev/nst0 is used if you just want to append extra Well, it's used in conjunction with 'mt' to position the tape to the proper point. One can have index marks (they work like the ones on VCRs) so if I am at beginning of tape and want to fast forward to right after the first archive, I do: # mt -f /dev/nst0 fsf1 Use of the no rewind device is critical here. Obviously I want to write or read after the first index mark, otherwise I wouldn't use the mt command. If I put # mt -f /dev/st0 fsf1 Thanks, Thought it might be something like that. I used to look after a few Novell Servers where I worked a few years ago so am used to tape backups in that environment. Usually they had gui front-ends ( we used Arcserve ) mt wasn't on my system so I have just fetched an rpm off rpmfind. The one I got is mt-st-0.6-3mdk.i586.rpm which seems to be the most recent stable version for Mandrake. best wishes, norm -- registered Linux user 277766 Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
Re: [newbie] HP Surestore 5000
The one I got is mt-st-0.6-3mdk.i586.rpm which seems to be the most recent stable version Should work fine. Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
Re: [newbie] HP Surestore 5000
Try flexbackup MS On Wed, 2002-07-03 at 00:02, dfox wrote: My problem is that I have no idea how to use the tape drive. Could someone give me some pointers please. I think there's a Tape howto over in the howto docs, but once you have the tape working, it's pretty easy to use - you just use the /dev/st0 (it is scsi, right?) or /dev/nst0 devises - the second is the no-rewind device. Is it worth playing with? Do yuo like to make backups? Or do you want to risk losing your data? :) Which tape would work with it? My surestore drive uses 4mm DAT tapes - they are DDS-2 and capacity is 2 gigs uncompressed. When I got the drive, that was just right for copacity; nowadays it is a bit small. But I rarely need to back everything up. The tapes I've been using are Imation 4mm tapes - $5 bucks a pop when I got the drive. What backup software could I use with it? Lots support tapes - since it is a device you can just use 'tar'. I've found that 'tar' is just as easy to use, and probably preferable over other backup software. Plus, Arkeia would need X, which translates to a pretty big system build before you could restore a tape. Tar can fit on a rescue diskette. Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
Re: [newbie] HP Surestore 5000
Well guys I understand a lot more about tape drives now than I did 3 days ago. A pity more of the people who think MS means computing don't see how much more there is to it than re-installing screwed up DLL's, VXD's etc. I feel sure the great slew of ideas from just this one thread would open a few eyes. thanks to all, norm Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
Re: [newbie] HP Surestore 5000
Try flexbackup MS On Wed, 2002-07-03 at 00:02, dfox wrote: My problem is that I have no idea how to use the tape drive. Could someone give me some pointers please. I think there's a Tape howto over in the howto docs, but once you have the tape working, it's pretty easy to use - you just use the /dev/st0 (it is scsi, right?) or /dev/nst0 devises - the second is the no-rewind device. Is it worth playing with? Do yuo like to make backups? Or do you want to risk losing your data? :) Which tape would work with it? My surestore drive uses 4mm DAT tapes - they are DDS-2 and capacity is 2 gigs uncompressed. When I got the drive, that was just right for copacity; nowadays it is a bit small. But I rarely need to back everything up. The tapes I've been using are Imation 4mm tapes - $5 bucks a pop when I got the drive. What backup software could I use with it? Lots support tapes - since it is a device you can just use 'tar'. I've found that 'tar' is just as easy to use, and probably preferable over other backup software. Plus, Arkeia would need X, which translates to a pretty big system build before you could restore a tape. Tar can fit on a rescue diskette. Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
Re: [newbie] HP Surestore 5000
Try flexbackup MS Try trimming your posts Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
Re: [newbie] HP Surestore 5000
dfox wrote: I think there's a Tape howto over in the howto docs, but once you have the tape working, it's pretty easy to use - you just use the /dev/st0 (it is scsi, right?) or /dev/nst0 devises - the second is the no-rewind device. Is it worth playing with? Do yuo like to make backups? Or do you want to risk losing your data? :) Which tape would work with it? My surestore drive uses 4mm DAT tapes - they are DDS-2 and capacity is 2 gigs uncompressed. When I got the drive, that was just right for copacity; nowadays it is a bit small. But I rarely need to back everything up. The tapes I've been using are Imation 4mm tapes - $5 bucks a pop when I got the drive. What backup software could I use with it? Lots support tapes - since it is a device you can just use 'tar'. I've found that 'tar' is just as easy to use, and probably preferable over other backup software. Plus, Arkeia would need X, which translates to a pretty big system build before you could restore a tape. Tar can fit on a rescue diskette. Thanks, tar cvf /dev/st0 /home/norman did a backup of my home directory. I thought I would need some software to rewind the tape not realising that this would happen automatically after the above command completed. I assume /dev/nst0 is used if you just want to append extra stuff after the first write. best wishes, norm registered Linux user 277766 Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
Re: [newbie] HP Surestore 5000
On Wed, 3 Jul 2002, Norman wrote: tar cvf /dev/st0 /home/norman did a backup of my home directory. I thought I would need some software to rewind the tape not realising that this would happen automatically after the above command completed. I assume /dev/nst0 is used if you just want to append extra stuff after the first write. best wishes, norm registered Linux user 277766 ok...now you've really got my curiosity peeked. once you get the files on the tape, how in the world does one browse, find, and then get the file(s) off the tape? I've never done this before, but am truely facinated by this. -- daRmaTTeR R L U: #186492 When ever people annoy me I remember, Vengence is mine saith the Lord. My prayer is, ...here am I Lord...send me! Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
RE: [newbie] HP Surestore 5000
On Wed, 3 Jul 2002, Norman wrote: tar cvf /dev/st0 /home/norman did a backup of my home directory. I thought I would need some software to rewind the tape not realising that this would happen automatically after the above command completed. I assume /dev/nst0 is used if you just want to append extra stuff after the first write. best wishes, norm registered Linux user 277766 ok...now you've really got my curiosity peeked. once you get the files on the tape, how in the world does one browse, find, and then get the file(s) off the tape? I've never done this before, but am truely facinated by this. Simple. If you put 'em on there with tar, take 'em off with tar. To get a listing of them: tar -tvf /dev/st0 tape_list.tar (would output the contents to a file) Want one off? tar -xvf /dev/st0 path/filename Want to get really trick, you can compress the files when you write them to tape with tar: tar -czvf /dev/st0 files to be backed up To get those off: tar -zxvf /dev/st0 filespec The z in tar will compress/uncompress them on the fly. There are far better utilities for doing backups than tar. But in a pinch, it works. Let's not forget that tar is short for Tape ARchive In fact, tar should by default use whatever your default tape drive is. (works that way on AIX, Solaris, HP-UX anyway) You just type: tar -xv files to back up If you leave off the f, it defaults to the first tape drive. The f flag is actually to designate a file name for the archive other than tape. I haven't tried this on Linux. Maybe I'll check mine when I get home.. ;) Have fun! Ric Now the fun part: This is like a lottery: Will this actually post or not. I haven't had any luck lately. I've almost given up trying. Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
RE: [newbie] HP Surestore 5000
On Wed, 3 Jul 2002, Tibbetts, Ric wrote: ok...now you've really got my curiosity peeked. once you get the files on the tape, how in the world does one browse, find, and then get the file(s) off the tape? I've never done this before, but am truely facinated by this. Simple. If you put 'em on there with tar, take 'em off with tar. To get a listing of them: tar -tvf /dev/st0 tape_list.tar (would output the contents to a file) Want one off? tar -xvf /dev/st0 path/filename Want to get really trick, you can compress the files when you write them to tape with tar: tar -czvf /dev/st0 files to be backed up To get those off: tar -zxvf /dev/st0 filespec The z in tar will compress/uncompress them on the fly. There are far better utilities for doing backups than tar. But in a pinch, it works. Let's not forget that tar is short for Tape ARchive In fact, tar should by default use whatever your default tape drive is. (works that way on AIX, Solaris, HP-UX anyway) You just type: tar -xv files to back up If you leave off the f, it defaults to the first tape drive. The f flag is actually to designate a file name for the archive other than tape. I haven't tried this on Linux. Maybe I'll check mine when I get home.. ;) Have fun! Ric Now the fun part: This is like a lottery: Will this actually post or not. I haven't had any luck lately. I've almost given up trying. Ric, thank you SO much for that awesome information. I can now see what is on the tape now by writing the contents to a file. however when I attempt to extract a specific file from the tape is tells me that the listed file is not found in the archive. ==error message=== [root@tapeserv root]# tar -xvf /dev/st0 /home/mdw1982/.mc/ini tar: /home/mdw1982/.mc/ini: Not found in archive tar: Error exit delayed from previous errors == end error message === Try dropping the leading slash from the filespec: tar -xvf /dev/st0 home/mdwwhatever/somefile Just watch where you're sitting when you do that. I think if you check the listing you made with 'tar -tvf', you'll notice the leading slash is not there. Tar does that so you can restore them anywhere. If the leading slash is still on, then the file will only restore to it's original location. I usually have a /Data/Restore filesystem for doing restores. I get them off tape to that directory, then put them in place. It's a hassle, but I've hammered home directories by dropping them straight in. (turned a whole home directory into 0 length files... oops!). Cheers! Ric Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
Re: [newbie] HP Surestore 5000
On Wednesday 03 July 2002 01:43 pm, you wrote: On Wed, 3 Jul 2002, Tibbetts, Ric wrote: ok...now you've really got my curiosity peeked. once you get the files on the tape, how in the world does one browse, find, and then get the file(s) off the tape? I've never done this before, but am truely facinated by this. Simple. If you put 'em on there with tar, take 'em off with tar. To get a listing of them: tar -tvf /dev/st0 tape_list.tar (would output the contents to a file) Want one off? tar -xvf /dev/st0 path/filename Want to get really trick, you can compress the files when you write them to tape with tar: tar -czvf /dev/st0 files to be backed up To get those off: tar -zxvf /dev/st0 filespec The z in tar will compress/uncompress them on the fly. There are far better utilities for doing backups than tar. But in a pinch, it works. Let's not forget that tar is short for Tape ARchive In fact, tar should by default use whatever your default tape drive is. (works that way on AIX, Solaris, HP-UX anyway) You just type: tar -xv files to back up If you leave off the f, it defaults to the first tape drive. The f flag is actually to designate a file name for the archive other than tape. I haven't tried this on Linux. Maybe I'll check mine when I get home.. ;) Have fun! Ric Now the fun part: This is like a lottery: Will this actually post or not. I haven't had any luck lately. I've almost given up trying. Ric, thank you SO much for that awesome information. I can now see what is on the tape now by writing the contents to a file. however when I attempt to extract a specific file from the tape is tells me that the listed file is not found in the archive. ==error message=== [root@tapeserv root]# tar -xvf /dev/st0 /home/mdw1982/.mc/ini tar: /home/mdw1982/.mc/ini: Not found in archive tar: Error exit delayed from previous errors == end error message === what is it trying to tell me? that you have a puncuation problem? try tar -xvf /dev/st0/home/mdw1982/.mc/ini home/mdw1982/.mc/ini heck I Know squat about tar... I bet I am way wrong Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
RE: [newbie] HP Surestore 5000
On Wed, 3 Jul 2002, Tibbetts, Ric wrote: On Wed, 3 Jul 2002, Tibbetts, Ric wrote: ok...now you've really got my curiosity peeked. once you get the files on the tape, how in the world does one browse, find, and then get the file(s) off the tape? I've never done this before, but am truely facinated by this. Simple. If you put 'em on there with tar, take 'em off with tar. To get a listing of them: tar -tvf /dev/st0 tape_list.tar (would output the contents to a file) Want one off? tar -xvf /dev/st0 path/filename Want to get really trick, you can compress the files when you write them to tape with tar: tar -czvf /dev/st0 files to be backed up To get those off: tar -zxvf /dev/st0 filespec The z in tar will compress/uncompress them on the fly. There are far better utilities for doing backups than tar. But in a pinch, it works. Let's not forget that tar is short for Tape ARchive In fact, tar should by default use whatever your default tape drive is. (works that way on AIX, Solaris, HP-UX anyway) You just type: tar -xv files to back up If you leave off the f, it defaults to the first tape drive. The f flag is actually to designate a file name for the archive other than tape. I haven't tried this on Linux. Maybe I'll check mine when I get home.. ;) Have fun! Ric Now the fun part: This is like a lottery: Will this actually post or not. I haven't had any luck lately. I've almost given up trying. Ric, thank you SO much for that awesome information. I can now see what is on the tape now by writing the contents to a file. however when I attempt to extract a specific file from the tape is tells me that the listed file is not found in the archive. ==error message=== [root@tapeserv root]# tar -xvf /dev/st0 /home/mdw1982/.mc/ini tar: /home/mdw1982/.mc/ini: Not found in archive tar: Error exit delayed from previous errors == end error message === Try dropping the leading slash from the filespec: tar -xvf /dev/st0 home/mdwwhatever/somefile Just watch where you're sitting when you do that. I think if you check the listing you made with 'tar -tvf', you'll notice the leading slash is not there. Tar does that so you can restore them anywhere. If the leading slash is still on, then the file will only restore to it's original location. I usually have a /Data/Restore filesystem for doing restores. I get them off tape to that directory, then put them in place. It's a hassle, but I've hammered home directories by dropping them straight in. (turned a whole home directory into 0 length files... oops!). Cheers! Ric Ric, Thanks...that did the trick. Now all I've got to do is figure out just how to erase the tape before backing up to it. Or, does that happen automagically when tar begins to write to the device? -- daRmaTTeR R L U: #186492 When ever people annoy me I remember, Vengence is mine saith the Lord. My prayer is, ...here am I Lord...send me! Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
RE: [newbie] HP Surestore 5000
that you have a puncuation problem? try tar -xvf /dev/st0/home/mdw1982/.mc/ini home/mdw1982/.mc/ini heck I Know squat about tar... I bet I am way wrong I don't think that will work. If you did that, tar would be looking for a file: /dev/st0/home/ And that wouldn't exist. He just needed to drop the leading / off the filespec. Ric Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
RE: [newbie] HP Surestore 5000
Thanks...that did the trick. Now all I've got to do is figure out just how to erase the tape before backing up to it. Or, does that happen automagically when tar begins to write to the device? No worries! Tar will blindly write over anything that's already on the tape. So you don't need to format the tape. Trust me, formatting a tape (even erasing one) can be excruciatingly slow! Just write over them. Once you get artful, you can start playing with the mt commands (move tape). Then you can use non-rewinding devices, and put more than one tar file on a tape (provided you have room). ;) If you start running tight on space on that tape, remember to add the z flag when you create, and read the tape. Then it will compress the data. Depending on what the data is, it can recover a lot of space. Cheers Ric Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
Re: [newbie] HP Surestore 5000
On Wed, 3 Jul 2002, et wrote: Ric, thank you SO much for that awesome information. I can now see what is on the tape now by writing the contents to a file. however when I attempt to extract a specific file from the tape is tells me that the listed file is not found in the archive. ==error message=== [root@tapeserv root]# tar -xvf /dev/st0 /home/mdw1982/.mc/ini tar: /home/mdw1982/.mc/ini: Not found in archive tar: Error exit delayed from previous errors == end error message === what is it trying to tell me? that you have a puncuation problem? try tar -xvf /dev/st0/home/mdw1982/.mc/ini home/mdw1982/.mc/ini heck I Know squat about tar... I bet I am way wrong actually et, you were really close. heck, for all i know your way could be right also. -- daRmaTTeR R L U: #186492 When ever people annoy me I remember, Vengence is mine saith the Lord. My prayer is, ...here am I Lord...send me! Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
Re: [newbie] HP Surestore 5000
And that wouldn't exist. He just needed to drop the leading / off the filespec. Fundamentally, one would not try to tar to /dev/st0/home/whatever. The tape doesn't have a filesystem. to the OP - just use /dev/st0. You aren't going to be able to access the tape as a disk, so don't try to do so: there is no real concept of a 'root' directory or what have you on a tape, and you don't really need it anyway, because it's where you are in the filesystem when you *restore* that determines where the data is going to end up. Ric Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
Re: [newbie] HP Surestore 5000
If you start running tight on space on that tape, remember to add the z flag when you create, and read the tape. Then it will compress the data. Depending on what the data is, it can recover a lot of space. I'm not a big fan of using compression on the tapes, and I really haven't tried it. The downside is if you have a marginal tape, most of the data (anything after the marginal spot) becomes hard or impossible to recover. But I wonder if it is better to use the z flag (i.e, 'tar' does the compression, through gzip) or by preselecting compression (using mt; I think there's an option) beforehand. Ric Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
Re: [newbie] HP Surestore 5000
Thanks...that did the trick. Now all I've got to do is figure out just how to erase the tape before backing up to it. Or, does that happen automagically when tar begins to write to the device? You don't have to. It's done by the tape hardware itself, just like a regular audio/video tape. Sometimes a bulk eraser (courtesy of Radio Shack) helps, but I personally haven't found a need to for DAT tapes - I just keep writing on top of what was there before. There is an 'erase' option in 'mt' but I've never used it. Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
Re: [newbie] HP Surestore 5000
try tar -xvf /dev/st0/home/mdw1982/.mc/ini home/mdw1982/.mc/ini heck I Know squat about tar... I bet I am way wrong That won't work, sorry. Tapes don't have filesystems, and if you just want to back up starting from /home/mdw* just do: tar -cvf /dev/st0 /home/md* If you look at the output of tar (hence the 'v' option) you'll see a list of files, all starting with 'home'. Tar omits the leading '/' (there is an option to change this behavior) by default. When you do the restore, simply cd into the directory (/home/mdw*) and restore it. Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
Re: [newbie] HP Surestore 5000
Try dropping the leading slash from the filespec: tar -xvf /dev/st0 home/mdwwhatever/somefile Just watch where you're sitting when you do that. I think if you check the listing you made with 'tar -tvf', you'll notice the leading slash is not Ric - good advise. Just remember the difference between relative and absolute path names. Without the leading slash, that's a relative pathnmae -- i.e., relative to where you are now. If you are going to restore home, remember you must be at the top of the tree (cd /) because 'home' (or /home) is a directory off of /, and surely enough, when you restore in /, all the filenames just fall neatly where they're supposed to be. It's probably less error prone to backup /home/username rather than just 'username' -- even if it means one extra directory in the paths of all your files. Not remembering 'where is this data reative to where I am in the filesystem' is easy to do, and oftentimes one ends up with /tmp/usr/bin/something or /home/ed/ed/wheatever if in the wrong place prior to the restore -- hell I've done it enough times :(. It's also why I tell people to 'tvf' before they 'xvf' when using 'tar' :). Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
Re: [newbie] HP Surestore 5000
To get those off: tar -zxvf /dev/st0 filespec The z in tar will compress/uncompress them on the fly. There are far better utilities for doing backups than tar. But in a pinch, it works. Let's That's one aspect where the commercial backup systems should fare better than plain 'tar' -- selective restore. The tape solution I had back when I was using DOS let me just point and click files that I wanted to restore. Plus, the files were stored at the beginning in a special hash / index file, so if you wanted to restore 'foo' it would fast-forward to where foo was, and get it. In a pinch, tar works well -- and it's best for full system restores, since the other solutions are usually too bgi and/or require too much installed just to run off of a floppy. The other available packages (arkeia, etc.) also may do better at incremental or differential system backups -- but that's an area that I have not yet tried. Just remember that a tape is a sequential device, so selective file restore is less convenient. Speaking of backups, there is 'dump' and 'restore' - these are less familiar for most linux people, but they are fairly entrenched in bsd. dump is probably harder to use and more arcane, and I've played with it less than 'tar' but it does let you rummage around the tape almost like a filesystem, you can interactively list directories, and so forth. (With this thread and the recent one on recording streams I hope I get to have an impact changing magnetic patterns on a whole slew of systems out there :). Ric Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
Re: [newbie] HP Surestore 5000
My problem is that I have no idea how to use the tape drive. Could someone give me some pointers please. I think there's a Tape howto over in the howto docs, but once you have the tape working, it's pretty easy to use - you just use the /dev/st0 (it is scsi, right?) or /dev/nst0 devises - the second is the no-rewind device. Is it worth playing with? Do yuo like to make backups? Or do you want to risk losing your data? :) Which tape would work with it? My surestore drive uses 4mm DAT tapes - they are DDS-2 and capacity is 2 gigs uncompressed. When I got the drive, that was just right for copacity; nowadays it is a bit small. But I rarely need to back everything up. The tapes I've been using are Imation 4mm tapes - $5 bucks a pop when I got the drive. What backup software could I use with it? Lots support tapes - since it is a device you can just use 'tar'. I've found that 'tar' is just as easy to use, and probably preferable over other backup software. Plus, Arkeia would need X, which translates to a pretty big system build before you could restore a tape. Tar can fit on a rescue diskette. Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
[newbie] HP Surestore 5000
Hi all, I have been given one of these drives. I have 3 different tapes with it. One tape is DDS another is DDS2 and the third is DDS3. It is connected to my Advansys SCSI Card which also has a Scanner attached. A scan of the scsi buses gives : scsibus0: 0,0,0 0) * 0,1,0 1) * 0,2,0 2) * 0,3,0 3) 'HP ' 'HP35480A' 'T603' Removable Tape 0,4,0 4) * 0,5,0 5) * 0,6,0 6) * 0,7,0 7) * scsibus1: 1,0,0 100) 'HP ' 'CD-Writer+ 8200 ' '1.0f' Removable CD-ROM 1,1,0 101) * 1,2,0 102) * 1,3,0 103) * 1,4,0 104) * 1,5,0 105) * 1,6,0 106) * 1,7,0 107) *-- registered Linux user 277766 The CD-Writer is an IDE device and it works. My problem is that I have no idea how to use the tape drive. Could someone give me some pointers please. Is it worth playing with? Which tape would work with it? What backup software could I use with it? I installed Arkeia on my Mandrake 8.0 kernel 2.4.3 system when I bought it but the temporary license expired long before I got the drive.. ( at the moment I am using cdbackup 0.6.2 with the CDRW ) thanks, norm Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
