[Veritas-bu] restoring netbackup image via gnutar

Rehan,

   If the 'mt' command in your message is in fact the one you used, then
the device you're specifying is the problem.  In Unix, a tape device will
rewind after the command is done unless you explicitly tell it not to.  In
your case, you do not want it to rewind.  To specify the non-rewind 
version
of the tape drive, add an 'n' (No-rewind) to the drive number.  As such,
to get the tape drive to skip over the first file and stay at the 
beginning
of the second file, use the command

        mt -f /dev/rmt/0cbn fsf 1

I added the 'c' and 'b' options because in all likelihood, they were
specified when the drives were defined to NetBackup.  The 'c' stays to
use hardware compression and the 'b' says to use BSD (Berkeley Standard
Distribution) behavior.

To make sure you are at the beginning of the tape before issuing the
gnutar command, I'd explicitly rewind the tape:

        mt -f /dev/rmt/0cbn rew

or you can use the 'asf' command which is the equivalent of the 'rew'
followed by the 'fsf'.

One final note.   Since your tapes where created on a DLT7000, you may 
have
problems reading them on a DTL4000.  I don't believe the tape formats are
compatable.  However, the other way around would work (ie. tapes created
on a DLT4000 should be readable on a DLT7000).

-- Tony Guzzi
Solutions Engineer, AssuredRestore team
Storability, Inc.

www.storabilility.com
The Leading Provider of Automated Storage Assurance for the Enterprise

=======================================================================================
From: "Rehan Ahmed" <rahmed AT cyber.net DOT pk>
Reply-to: rahmed AT cyber.net DOT pk
To: veritas-bu AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu
Date: Tue, 26 Jun 2001 14:00:04 00500
Subject: [Veritas-bu] restoring netbackup image via gnutar

Hi,
I just wanted to restore via DLT4000 in case of my DLT7000 tsd and 
netbackup
server down. For that reason I need to position my tape to first file and 
record
(or the specified file and record) and then use gnutar. I tried tpreq 
netbackup
utility for mounting and bpmedialist for viewing images, it works fine but 
its
only useful when my netbackup deamomns were running.
I tried "mt -f /dev/rmt/0 fsf 1" but it did not position my tape to the 
first
file.
Will any of you gurus tell me how can I view my netbackup media images and 
untar
when my Netbackup Server and DLT7000 were unavailable , the only things I 
have
just DLT4000 and gnutar utility.
Thanx in advance.
Regards,
Rehan