Originally posted by: Tibor_B

Hi

I want to verify system backup made on tape, I was going to use smit's "Verify the Readability of a Backup (Tape only)", but I am bit concerned due to this warning:
Continuing may delete information you may want
to keep. This is your last chance to stop
before continuing.

I would say that this should be purely read-only operation with the tape, so is there really any risk with this step?

Thanks
Tibor
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Originally posted by: V6G3_Romeo_Ninov

Why do not use tar or dd? Just do not forget to skip first three blocks
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Originally posted by: Tibor_B

Yes, I could do it, In fact, I tried but I'm not that familiar with tapes so I tried something like this:

$tctl -f /dev/rmt0 rewind
$tctl -f /dev/rmt0.3 fsr 1
$gtar -tvf /dev/rmt0
gtar: /dev/rmt0: Cannot read: There is an input or output error.
gtar: At beginning of tape, quitting now
gtar: Error is not recoverable: exiting now

But I need "complete" check including what is before tar with files.

I manualy tried to run

$mksysb -V /dev/rmt0

and it obviously started the backup again and went to overwrite content of tape. Strange....
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Originally posted by: Tibor_B

So I found an answer (will not quarantee that the tape will boot and work properly though):

lsmksysb -V -f /dev/rmt#
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