Using a tape drive

[fishface]

I'm running SUSE Seerv9 and I'm trying to get data back from a DLT8000 tape drive whichthe server is directly connected via SCSI but I'm not having much joy.

When I use 'mt -f /dev/st0 status' is just reports back 'no such file or directory'

What am I doing wrong?

YAST reports the DLT8000 as being dev/st0

Previously on a older system I just use to use 'mt -f /dev/nst0 rewind and varoius other commands and all worked as it should.

[michaelk]

The error indicates that either mt is not installed or that it is not in the users path.

Try the following:
locate mt

[fishface]

Tried that and it does nothing at all.

On an old server (SUSE8.2) the 'locate mt' works.

I'm logged on a root.


Maybe not installed? I have looked in bin and sbin and see no 'mt there.

Done a bit of digging around and it now seems to be 'mtst' - so I tried 'mtst -f /dev/sd0 status' and get the following:

'SCSI 2 tape drive:
File number=0, block number=0, partition=0.
Tape block size 0 bytes. Density code 0x41 (DLT 40GB).
Soft error count since last status=0
General status bits on (45010000):
BOT WR_PROT ONLINE IM_REP_EN

[fishface]

I've made some progress but I'm still having problems.

I've used ' amrestore -p /dev/nrmt9 no-such-host > /dev/null' to get the name of the images (we've lost the logs) and I have found the image. Every time I try to restore the image it does not seem to work. I do the following:

'
billy:/amanda # amrestore -p /dev/st0 billy billy._var.20060407.0 | restore -ivf-
Verify tape and initialize maps
Input is from a local file/pipe
amrestore: 0: skipping start of tape: date 20060407 label billy-Full-1-03
amrestore: 1: skipping billy._users_disk11.20060407.0
amrestore: 2: skipping billy._users_disk5.20060407.0
amrestore: 3: skipping billy._users_disk2.20060407.0
amrestore: 4: skipping billy._var.20060407.0
amrestore: 5: skipping billy._users_disk8.20060407.0
amrestore: 6: skipping billy._server_billy_build.20060407.0'

I then it just ends. I've dropped the 'b' option as recommended. I want to restore the image to the CWD not a sda1 or sdb2 etc etc.

I want to restore the file 'billy._var.20060407.0'

I'm still very much on a learning curve with Linux so I apologise if I'm asking silly questions!

[fishface]

Had luck with one file but I get error messages for other files/images on the tape.

All I want ot do is restore one particular image into the CWD, amrestore -p /dev/sto billy worked for 1 image but not for another image I want to get back.

This also worked for 1 file billy:/amanda # tar xvf /dev/st0 billy._disk1.20060407.0 but when I tried it fow another I got the following

billy:/amanda # tar -xvf /dev/st0 billy._usr.20060407.0
tar: /dev/st0: Cannot read: Cannot allocate memory
tar: At beginning of tape, quitting now
tar: Error is not recoverable: exiting now

I dont; want to use the full amdump format as this would overwriet the files in the new version of that directory.

[fishface]

Anybody?

I have now tried all sorts. I can forward to the file I want by using 'mt -f /dev/tape fsf 14' having got the file number by doing ' amrestore -p /dev/st0 no-such-host > /dev/null'
I've tried 'tar xvf /dev/st0 billy._disk1.20060407.0'
I've tried 'dd if=/dev/tape bs=32k | tar xvf -'
I've tried 'amrestore -p /dev/st0 billy._disk1.20060407.0 | tar xvf -

The problem seems that whatever I do it just merrily skips on past the file.

What I don't get is that I'm using 'mt -f /dev/st0 fsf 14 to skip past the other files so it doesn't spend ages seeking yet it always seems to reoprt back from the first file and tediously goes through the whole tape again - why? It skips to 14 (or appears to be) then it should start listing/finding tec from 14, not start from 0 all over again. What am I doing wrong?

[fishface]

anybody?

I now have more info so if anybody can point to a website or forum that can help can you let me know. btw, amanda.org is of no help.

thanks