Originally posted by: matthewctx

I am way beyond over my head with this, so I apologize.

We have a RISC System/6000 with AIX 4.3.3.0 that uses an HP SureStore DAT 24 for tape backups.

I think the SureStore has stopped working and I can't replace the server until summer so...

1. How can one test if the tape drive is functional or not?

2. If it is in fact not working, what can I do to continue automatically backing up the server? No one in town will have anything to do with SCSI or DAT.

Thank you for your time.

Originally posted by: efabianb

Hey Matthewctx.

first.

1. What is it your trying to backup: database, application, OS?

2. Are there any error messages on the OS side regarding the Surestore DAT24, is the OS seeing the Device?, is there any LED on on the device?

Regarding backing up, if its the OS, you can use mksysb, check out the man options, if its more an application you can use savevg or maybe also a simple TAR command or even the backup command.

And you can probably put the backups in an NFS.

Hope this helps.

Regards.

Originally posted by: matthewctx

Thank you for your response.

I believe we have just been using it to backup our database, although I'd like to do a whole OS backup (makesysb.log hasn't been modified since 2007).

In /u/util/backup.qc:

"ERROR: Backup confirmation test failed :ERROR

20892 files should be on tape.

15991 files read from tape."

Is there any way to send data to a test tape and request the data back to test it? A program that tests tape drives in a way that lptest tests print queues or ping tests network connections?

Originally posted by: efabianb

Hey.

What kind of DB are you running?, Oracle uses Rman you can use that to backup to disk, as for your other question im not sure, have a look at tctl, dd or mt commands maybe that con provide some help.

I do remember HP has a tool for checking tape devices, if i remember correctly its name is L&TT, I used it on LTO tapes maybe it can also be utilied on DDS tapes

Regards.