DLT Tape can not Restore

A big Thank-You goes out to the list. I finally got tar to restore from
a DLT tape. The problem I had was that I need to rewind more than what
was originally thought; for example after the tar -tf it is necessary to
rewind to do a file restore from the tape, that was one of the biggest
hurdles. It now makes perfect sense although at the time I was left
wondering why can tar list the files on the DLT tape but not restore any
of them. =20


Here is the basic procedure:

dd if=3D/dev/zero of=3D/dev/st0 count=3D1 bs=3D32768 <--  This erases the d=
ata
                    on the tape device /dev/st0
tar -cf /dev/nst0 /directory.to.be.backedup/ <-- This backs up a given
                         directory

mt -f /dev/nst0 rewind                  <--  This rewinds the tape=20

tar -tf /dev/nst0                  <-- This tells you what is                          on the tape

mt -f /dev/nst0 rewind                  <--  This rewinds the tape=20

tar -xvf /dev/st0 deleteme/test1         <--This restores file test1
                        to the current working                         directory
                        =09

Jim :)
=20




On Fri, 2003-08-15 at 00:50, der.hans wrote:
> Am 13. Aug, 2003 schw=E4tzte Jim so:
>=20
> > "tar -tf /dev/nst0" finally worked results below, altough I still can
> > not restore from the tape. Also what is wierd is that I do some
> > commands like tar and cpio and then I start getting I/O error messages =
I
> > wait a while sometimes only minutes usually longer and then the command=
s
> > work sucsessfully. Is the problem that the tape is still working on
> > completeing one command and now I just gave it another but it is not
> > done with the first?
>=20
> It sounds like there's still something wrong with your SCSI environment.
>=20
> I think you said you fixed a termination error to get this far.
>=20
> Can you change cables?
>=20
> If you don't have a spare let me know what you need on either end and I c=
an
> probably loan you a cable.
>=20
> > Well below is a sucsessful "tar -tf /dev/nst0" with the results the onl=
y
> > problem is that I did not know the syntax that cpio wanted when I was
> > restoring for device name/filename and then it finally brought up an I/=
O
> > when I typed in just the device name.
> >
> >
> > Do I need to rewind the tape before I can restore from it?
>=20
> When using /dev/nst0 you need to rewind. I know it seems like more work, =
but
> it has been my experience that you're better off using the non-rewind dev=
ice
> and having to rewind by hand.
>=20
> mt -f /dev/nst0 rewind
> mt -f /dev/nst0 status
> mt -f /dev/nst0 tell
> mt -f /dev/nst0 fsf
> mt -f /dev/nst0 status
> mt -f /dev/nst0 tell
>=20
> If you've got a backup on the tape that second tell should give you a
> non-zero number.
>=20
> When doing a status you're generally only concerned with the last line
> that's all in capital letters.
>=20
>=20
> mt -f /dev/nst0 rewind
> tar cf /dev/nst0 /etc
> mt -f /dev/nst0 tell
> mt -f /dev/nst0 rewind
> tar tf /dev/nst0 | tee /tmp/tape.toc
> mt -f /dev/nst0 tell
>=20
> Both of those tells should report the same place. You should get a file
> listing for /etc in /tmp/tape.toc.
>=20
> ciao,
>=20
> der.hans