[CLUE-Tech] tape backups

[Ed Hill]

On Wed, 2002-08-14 at 17:03, Mike Staver wrote:
> So, how long should the -tf command take? I have a 24 gig tape:
> 
> root      1370  0.0  0.0  1752  540 pts/0    D    16:45   0:00 tar -tf
> /dev/st0
> 
> The process doesn't appear to be doing anything, and the drive doesn't
> look like it's working.... 


It depends how fast your hardware is and how much is on the tape.  And
there may be nothing on that tape in which case tar should complain that
the archive does not exist...

So to debug your problem, first make sure that you have the correct
device.  Is "/dev/st0" in fact your scsi tape drive?  You may have to
load the appropriate scsi kernel modules first.  Run "modprobe st.o" or
something similar to load the scsi and scsi-tape modules.

Once you have verified that the correct modules are loaded ("lsmod") and
you have the right tape device (I'll assume its "/dev/st0"), then try:

  mt -f /dev/st0 rewind
  tar -cvf /dev/st0 ./test_dir
  mt -f /dev/st0 rewind
  tar -tvf /dev/st0
  cd /tmp
  mt -f /dev/st0 rewind
  tar -xvf /dev/st0

to create the tar archive, view the archive contents, and then extract
the archive into the /tmp directory.  Note that the "mt -f /dev/st0
rewind" command may not be necessary on newer hardware.

hth,
Ed

-- 
Edward H. Hill III, PhD 
Post-Doctoral Researcher   |  Email:  ed at eh3.com,  ehill at mines.edu
Division of ESE            |  URLs:   http://www.eh3.com
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