Amanda    2.4.4p1-20030716
SGI/IRIX  6.5.19m
mtx       1.3.8
8 Slot jukebox with SDLT 320 (Quantum)
gnutar    1.13.25

I suppose this configuration looks familiar to some of you.

I was in the process of writing an email to thank Stefan Weichinger,
Gene Heskett and Eric Siegerman for the terrific and patient help they
gave me with my new amanda config.

I don't wish to diminish the thanks but must sadly ask for further help.
Unfortuanately I have yet another issue... but we'll get to that later.

Currently we are using the jukebox, have DLE types of both xfsdump for
the root and /usr1 partitions and of type TAR (gnutar) for DLEs that
match the (top of partition) user directories on the Raid Array (.86 Tbytes).

I've assigned a directory on the raid array to act as the work area
(but was careful to not list it as a DLE) and have increased the maxdump
to something larger than 1. We are still client contrained but 3 concurrent
dumps is an aweful lot better than one. [I should also say that this
system is the sole client of the server resident on this system]. I have
also set the dump cycle to 2 weeks rather than one.

I'm planning to dump 2-3 times per week but have been starting the
process manually (via the # at command) and have seen dumps in only
50 hours, down from hundreds when I initially started the server up.

By all accounts everything is working properly, some tuning is still
in order but there are no apparent errors. Or where not until I tried
to test the file restore process.

I am able to "see" the DLEs on tape but I'm unable to retried any data,
either from the dump or the tar partitions.

samar 144# mt -f /dev/sdlt2 rewind
samar 145# /usr/local/sbin/amrestore /dev/sdlt2 samar /usr5/dtaylor
amrestore:   0: skipping start of tape: date 20041227 label SAMAR23
amrestore:   1: skipping samar._usr1.20041227.1
amrestore:   2: skipping samar._usr5_lalor.20041227.1
amrestore:   3: skipping samar._usr5_amanda.20041227.0
amrestore:   4: restoring samar._usr5_dtaylor.20041227.1
amrestore: read error: I/O error

gzip: stdin: unexpected end of file


I am able to use amrestore with the "-r" option which results in
files like this


samar 77# more samar._usr5_lalor.20041227.1
AMANDA: FILE 20041227 samar /usr5/lalor lev 1 comp .gz program 
/usr/local/sbin/gnutar
To restore, position tape at start of file and run:
        dd if=<tape> bs=32k skip=1 | /usr/sbin/gzip -dc | usr/local/sbin/gnutar 
-f... -


where the rest of the file is empty. I should be more explicite.

samar 82# ls -las samar._usr5_lalor.20041227.1
  64 -rw-r-----   1 root sys 32768 Dec 29 15:36 samar._usr5_lalor.20041227.1

samar 79# cat -evt samar._usr5_lalor.20041227.1 | head
AMANDA: FILE 20041227 samar /usr5/lalor lev 1 comp .gz program /usr/local/sbin/g
nutar$
To restore, position tape at start of file and run:$
^Idd if=<tape> bs=32k skip=1 | /usr/sbin/gzip -dc | usr/local/sbin/gnutar -f... 
-$
^L$
^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@
^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@
^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@
^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@

The file headers are there, I just don't know where the data has gotten to.
I certainly see multiple "chunksize" files in the work area when I'm running
amdump.

I've otherwise tested the tape drive with the native version of # tar
and have been able to write and recover data. Besides the amrestore
listing is out there.

# mt commands seem to run progressively longer as I read the tape, I'm
apparently writing lots of something between EOF marks, I'm just hoping
that its actual data.

# ls -las  /dev/sdlt2
lrwxr-xr-x    1 root  sys  20 Nov 22 14:45 /dev/sdlt2 -> /dev/rmt/tps1d4nrnsv

ie, bus 1, target (SCSI id) 4, non-rewinding, non-bytes-wapping, variable
length records. Similar to what I run on other systems.

                Thank you all for your help, past, present and future,

                                                        Brian

---
   Brian R Cuttler                 brian.cuttler AT wadsworth DOT org
   Computer Systems Support        (v) 518 486-1697
   Wadsworth Center                (f) 518 473-6384
   NYS Department of Health        Help Desk 518 473-0773