Date: Sat, 1 Nov 2003 00:30:52 -0800 From: "Rick Duvall" <rduvall@onlinehighways.net> To: "Technical Director" <trodat@ultratrends.com> Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Verifying integrity of Backup Tapes Message-ID: <000d01c3a052$768bed30$f901a8c0@ws21> References: <Pine.BSF.4.21.0310312155500.282-100000@server1.ultratrends.com>
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I was doing incrementals, and since my amverify failed on one of my tapes, I found that doing incrementals in my case is a bad idea if I can fit a full backup of all my data onto one tape. Now I am doing a level 0 on every run. Amverify get's to about the 6th filesystem I am dumping to tape and gives me an Input/output error. I know it's not the end of the tape, otherwise amdump would say so. FYI: These are travan 10/20 tapes. I know, not the best choice. I am trying to convince my boss to replace it with a DDS4 drive, as the DDS4 tapes are less expensive. These are $40 a piece, whereas the DDS4's are $13 a piece and hold twice as much data. Sincerely, Rick Duvall ----- Original Message ----- From: "Technical Director" <trodat@ultratrends.com> To: "Rick Duvall" <rduvall@onlinehighways.net> Cc: <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org> Sent: Friday, October 31, 2003 9:03 PM Subject: Re: Verifying integrity of Backup Tapes > > Rick, > > I'm not to sure of a best method for checking the tapes, I might tar'ing a > massive file to the tape and then back to see if it is working. > > Unfortunately during the use of your backup schema the tapes have to > degrade. If it's a DLT400 tape or even a DDS# series I can see the need to > hang on to them for some time to insure the cost of the media was > repaid. Might it be best though to question the integrity of using a media > that may have reached it's usable lifespan? > > As well depending on your method of backup, say full, 1/4, 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, > etc. one tape that has a problem with the data on it will throw the entire > sequence of backups. And if you have full backups, skipping the > incremental, you might save yourself the hassle of a wrecked sequence of > incrementals, yet the entire concept of backup is lost with bad media. > > I'm just trying to give you some ideas on how to go from here, not trying > to critisize you on something you probably are already thinking. > > R. > > On Fri, 31 Oct 2003, Rick Duvall wrote: > > > I have some backup tapes that I have been using each once per week for about > > 8 months. I am getting errors when running amverify on a couple of them. > > To be sure that my tapes are still good and not just the system giving me > > fits, it would be nice if I could run a program that would write bits to the > > tape in question and try to read them back, telling me which blocks on the > > tape are bad. Is there such a tool that does this? I guess it would be > > kind of like a scandisk is to a DOS Floppy as what I am talking about is to > > a Unix Tape. > > > > Sincerely, > > > > Rick Duvall > > Online Highways > > System Administrator > > (541) 997-8401 x 111 > > > > _______________________________________________ > > freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list > > http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions > > To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-questions-unsubscribe@freebsd.org" > > > >
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