Originally posted by: Richlion2

Hello,

I cannot find any topics on this type of error. I am on AIX 6.1 and using savevg to backup a volume group to tape.

Savevg seems to be ok, however it's giving me problems backing up one of my oracle database files:

lseek: Invalid argument
An internal packing error occurred: incorrect size
./d01/prsuat/ctlfiles/ctrl1prsuat.ctl will not be backed up.

0512-005 savevg: Backup Completed.
        The backup command completed with errors.
 

As I am testing the procedure and on my test box all Oracle database remain open I think maybe this is because savevg as some problems with backing up open files. Other open database files can be open and backed up:

a   1573920768 ./d01/bbfuat/oradata/data01_01.dbf
a     10493952 ./d01/bbfuat/oradata/data02_01.dbf
a    146808832 ./d01/bbfuat/oradata/data03_01.dbf
 

Can anyone tell me what could be the reason behind this problem?

This is the command:

savevg -vf/dev/rmt3 datavg data4_vg data3_vg

Thanks

Ryszard

Originally posted by: GarlandJoseph

This can occur if the file is active during the backup.  You can try the -p option. 

-p Disables software packing of the files as they are backed up. Some tape drives use their own packing or compression algorithms.

Originally posted by: Richlion2

Thanks for responding. I am testing my procedure with a shutdown of my databases at night and I'll see how this goes.

Ryszard

Originally posted by: GarlandJoseph

You can also try to use the -p option without bringing the databases down (...is how I read the man page).   Note: you can do an fuser <file> to see if a process has a  file open.   Good luck.

Originally posted by: GarlandJoseph

Here is another option... -P...this option is like -p except that it allows you to specify a list of files to be excluded from compression.  Do a more /usr/bin/savevg.  Not sure why it's not in the man pages

-P Exclude files from packing option listed in /etc/exclude_packing.rootvg.
 

Originally posted by: Richlion2

Yes, from the message which refers to "packing" itself is seems that the -p may work:

"An internal packing error occurred: incorrect size"

Sometimes it can be tricky to interpret messages correctly.

I need to keep the procedure as simple as possible, of course I've got some exclusions to make, but I can't exclude database files.

Thanks again,

Ryszard

Originally posted by: GarlandJoseph

Note: this exclusion is to prevent packing (-P)...it should still backup the file.  There is a separate file for excluding (not backing up) files.  This is the -e switch and the file is /etc/exclude.<vgname>.  T

Originally posted by: cochise100

have you tried new snapshot method? -T switch in snapvg command?

-T Create a backup using snapshots. This flag applies only for JFS2 file systems.

When you specify the -T flag to use snapshots for creating a volume group backup, external JFS2 snapshots are created. Snapshots allow for a point-in-time image of a JFS2 file system and thus, do not require a system to be put into a temporarily inactive state.

The size of the snapshot is 2 - 15% of the size of the file system. The snapshot logical volumes are removed when backup is finished. However, snapshots are not removed if a file system already has other snapshots.

Additionally, if a file system has internal snapshots, then external snapshots cannot be created and snapshots are not used for creating the backup of the file system. The use of the -T flag does not affect any JFS file systems that are present in the volume group that is being backed up, These file systems are backed up in the same manner as done previously.