Backup Central

Hello,

I would like to know if we can "recover" an aborted tape so Legato can
write more data on it.

By aborted tape I mean the tape that has been marked "Full" because the
drive has gone off-line while Legato was writing to the tape and the
saveset is marked as "ta" for example.

I've tried to change the mode to "appendable" without success. Legato
tests it and decides not to use it.

Any idea would be very appreciated.

Thanks.

--

Manel Rodero Blánquez
o o o IT Systems Manager
o o o inLab FIB
o o o Barcelona School of Informatics
U P C Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya - Barcelona Tech

E-mail : manel < at > fib.upc.edu
Tel. : +34 93 401 0847
Web : http://inlab.fib.upc.edu/

======================================================================

Abans d'imprimir aquest missatge, si us plau, assegureu-vos que sigui
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--[ http://www.fib.upc.edu/disclaimer/ ]------------------------------

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persona o entitat destinatària. Si vosté no es el destinatari final o
persona encarregada de recollir-lo, no està autoritzat a llegir-lo,
retenir-lo, modificar-lo, distribuir-lo, copiar-lo ni a revelar el seu
contingut. Si ha rebut aquest correu electrònic per error, li preguem
que informi al remitent i elimini del seu sistema el missatge i el
material annex que pugui contenir. Gràcies per la seva col·laboració.

On 7/18/12 9:09 AM, Manel Rodero Blanquez wrote:
I would like to know if we can "recover" an aborted tape so Legato can write more data on it.


Manel,

You will need to stage all the valid data off that tape (which will probably involve data that
resides on other tapes as well), and then you can relabel the tape and use it again. EMC's
documentation says that staging is not valid for tape volumes, but it works (at least up to
7.6, I haven't tested with 8.0 yet).

--
Frank Swasey | http://www.uvm.edu/~fcs
Sr Systems Administrator | Always remember: You are UNIQUE,
University of Vermont | just like everyone else.
"I am not young enough to know everything." - Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)

Hello,

consider nsrmm -o notfull <volume>


Best regards,

Jacques Lapeire



-----Original Message-----
From: EMC NetWorker discussion [mailto:NETWORKER < at > LISTSERV.TEMPLE.EDU] On Behalf Of Manel Rodero Blanquez
Sent: Wednesday, July 18, 2012 3:09 PM
To: NETWORKER < at > LISTSERV.TEMPLE.EDU
Subject: [Networker] How to recover an aborted tape ?

Hello,

I would like to know if we can "recover" an aborted tape so Legato can
write more data on it.

By aborted tape I mean the tape that has been marked "Full" because the
drive has gone off-line while Legato was writing to the tape and the
saveset is marked as "ta" for example.

I've tried to change the mode to "appendable" without success. Legato
tests it and decides not to use it.

Any idea would be very appreciated.

Thanks.

--

Manel Rodero Blánquez
o o o IT Systems Manager
o o o inLab FIB
o o o Barcelona School of Informatics
U P C Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya - Barcelona Tech

E-mail : manel < at > fib.upc.edu
Tel. : +34 93 401 0847
Web : http://inlab.fib.upc.edu/

======================================================================

Abans d'imprimir aquest missatge, si us plau, assegureu-vos que sigui
necessari. El medi ambient és cosa de tots.

--[ http://www.fib.upc.edu/disclaimer/ ]------------------------------

ADVERTIMENT / TEXT LEGAL: Aquest missatge pot contenir informació
confidencial o legalment protegida i està exclusivament adreçat a la
persona o entitat destinatària. Si vosté no es el destinatari final o
persona encarregada de recollir-lo, no està autoritzat a llegir-lo,
retenir-lo, modificar-lo, distribuir-lo, copiar-lo ni a revelar el seu
contingut. Si ha rebut aquest correu electrònic per error, li preguem
que informi al remitent i elimini del seu sistema el missatge i el
material annex que pugui contenir. Gràcies per la seva col·laboració.

The recovery should not be an issue at all - worst case you must run a save set recovery. It will proceed as far as possible.
Setting a tape to appendable does of course not have any influence for recoveries, just for new backups.

And yes - you can stage from tape as well - this was always supported. Just releasing the used space is impossible as a tape is a sequential media.

Whenever you stage you should always specify the save set using the ssid/cloneid combination. If not you will loose your clones at the end of the process.

Hi,

Thanks to all for the answers. I don't want to stage data. I don't mind
to have an aborted save set on the tape. I only want it to be available
for writing more data instead of being marked full.

I'll try the nsrmm command to see if it works. If I use the GUI for
marking as appendable the tape is not used so is worth the check ...

Thanks.

El 18/07/2012 15:50, bingo escribió:
The recovery should not be an issue at all - worst case you must run a save set recovery. It will proceed as far as possible.
Setting a tape to appendable does of course not have any influence for recoveries, just for new backups.

And yes - you can stage from tape as well - this was always supported. Just releasing the used space is impossible as a tape is a sequential media.

Whenever you stage you should always specify the save set using the ssid/cloneid combination. If not you will loose your clones at the end of the process.

+----------------------------------------------------------------------
|This was sent by carsten_reinfeld < at > avus-cr.de via Backup Central.
|Forward SPAM to abuse < at > backupcentral.com.
+----------------------------------------------------------------------


--

Manel Rodero Blánquez
o o o IT Systems Manager
o o o inLab FIB
o o o Barcelona School of Informatics
U P C Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya - Barcelona Tech

E-mail : manel < at > fib.upc.edu
Tel. : +34 93 401 0847
Web : http://inlab.fib.upc.edu/

======================================================================

Abans d'imprimir aquest missatge, si us plau, assegureu-vos que sigui
necessari. El medi ambient és cosa de tots.

--[ http://www.fib.upc.edu/disclaimer/ ]------------------------------

ADVERTIMENT / TEXT LEGAL: Aquest missatge pot contenir informació
confidencial o legalment protegida i està exclusivament adreçat a la
persona o entitat destinatària. Si vosté no es el destinatari final o
persona encarregada de recollir-lo, no està autoritzat a llegir-lo,
retenir-lo, modificar-lo, distribuir-lo, copiar-lo ni a revelar el seu
contingut. Si ha rebut aquest correu electrònic per error, li preguem
que informi al remitent i elimini del seu sistema el missatge i el
material annex que pugui contenir. Gràcies per la seva col·laboració.

On 19/07/12 08:23, Manel Rodero Blanquez wrote:
Hi,

Thanks to all for the answers. I don't want to stage data. I don't mind
to have an aborted save set on the tape. I only want it to be available
for writing more data instead of being marked full.

I'll try the nsrmm command to see if it works. If I use the GUI for
marking as appendable the tape is not used so is worth the check ...

If it doesn't work from the GUI there's very little chance it will work
from nsrmm. The GUI is only calling nsrmm anyway.

Sometimes a load of garbage gets written when a session is aborted so it
might not be able to get past that.

What's the big deal over a part of one tape anyway? Tapes are cheap.

If the tape has an aborted saveset and has marked the tape as full, just mark the volume as appendable. New data will be written after the aborted saveset.

BUT you need to ask yourself why you have an aborted saveset in the first place!

Regards

Andrew

-----Original Message-----
From: EMC NetWorker discussion [mailto:NETWORKER < at > LISTSERV.TEMPLE.EDU] On Behalf Of Davina Treiber
Sent: 19 July 2012 09:41
To: NETWORKER < at > LISTSERV.TEMPLE.EDU
Subject: Re: [Networker] How to recover an aborted tape ?

On 19/07/12 08:23, Manel Rodero Blanquez wrote:
Hi,

Thanks to all for the answers. I don't want to stage data. I don't
mind to have an aborted save set on the tape. I only want it to be
available for writing more data instead of being marked full.

I'll try the nsrmm command to see if it works. If I use the GUI for
marking as appendable the tape is not used so is worth the check ...

If it doesn't work from the GUI there's very little chance it will work from nsrmm. The GUI is only calling nsrmm anyway.

Sometimes a load of garbage gets written when a session is aborted so it might not be able to get past that.

What's the big deal over a part of one tape anyway? Tapes are cheap.

Hi,

Yes, I know the cause of the abort saveset because it was a failover
problem of the library.

I can use another tape, because yes, they are cheap ... but this tape is
an LTO4 tape with only 1% of data on it and I would like to be able to
add more data to it without adding another tape, another tape number, etc.

The problem is that a failure of our Scalar i500 I/O Blade, suport has
changed this board and suddenly we're having problems with tape
disconnections, tape number reordering, etc. (the typical things in
persistence naming/binding environments). And I don't want to waste a
tape because a now recurring problem. Support is working on it in the
meantime.

Thanks to everyone.

El 19/07/2012 10:59, Andrew Martin escribió:
If the tape has an aborted saveset and has marked the tape as full, just mark the volume as appendable. New data will be written after the aborted saveset.

BUT you need to ask yourself why you have an aborted saveset in the first place!

Regards

Andrew

-----Original Message-----
From: EMC NetWorker discussion [mailto:NETWORKER < at > LISTSERV.TEMPLE.EDU] On Behalf Of Davina Treiber
Sent: 19 July 2012 09:41
To: NETWORKER < at > LISTSERV.TEMPLE.EDU
Subject: Re: [Networker] How to recover an aborted tape ?

On 19/07/12 08:23, Manel Rodero Blanquez wrote:
Hi,

Thanks to all for the answers. I don't want to stage data. I don't
mind to have an aborted save set on the tape. I only want it to be
available for writing more data instead of being marked full.

I'll try the nsrmm command to see if it works. If I use the GUI for
marking as appendable the tape is not used so is worth the check ...

If it doesn't work from the GUI there's very little chance it will work from nsrmm. The GUI is only calling nsrmm anyway.

Sometimes a load of garbage gets written when a session is aborted so it might not be able to get past that.

What's the big deal over a part of one tape anyway? Tapes are cheap.


--

Manel Rodero Blánquez
o o o IT Systems Manager
o o o inLab FIB
o o o Barcelona School of Informatics
U P C Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya - Barcelona Tech

E-mail : manel < at > fib.upc.edu
Tel. : +34 93 401 0847
Web : http://inlab.fib.upc.edu/

======================================================================

Abans d'imprimir aquest missatge, si us plau, assegureu-vos que sigui
necessari. El medi ambient és cosa de tots.

--[ http://www.fib.upc.edu/disclaimer/ ]------------------------------

ADVERTIMENT / TEXT LEGAL: Aquest missatge pot contenir informació
confidencial o legalment protegida i està exclusivament adreçat a la
persona o entitat destinatària. Si vosté no es el destinatari final o
persona encarregada de recollir-lo, no està autoritzat a llegir-lo,
retenir-lo, modificar-lo, distribuir-lo, copiar-lo ni a revelar el seu
contingut. Si ha rebut aquest correu electrònic per error, li preguem
que informi al remitent i elimini del seu sistema el missatge i el
material annex que pugui contenir. Gràcies per la seva col·laboració.

On 19/07/12 10:42, Manel Rodero Blanquez wrote:
Hi,

Yes, I know the cause of the abort saveset because it was a failover
problem of the library.

I can use another tape, because yes, they are cheap ... but this tape is
an LTO4 tape with only 1% of data on it and I would like to be able to
add more data to it without adding another tape, another tape number, etc.

If it's only 1% full it would be simple to stage the data off and
relabel it, as suggested by others.


The problem is that a failure of our Scalar i500 I/O Blade, suport has
changed this board and suddenly we're having problems with tape
disconnections, tape number reordering, etc. (the typical things in
persistence naming/binding environments). And I don't want to waste a
tape because a now recurring problem. Support is working on it in the
meantime.

Thanks to everyone.

El 19/07/2012 10:59, Andrew Martin escribió:
If the tape has an aborted saveset and has marked the tape as full,
just mark the volume as appendable. New data will be written after the
aborted saveset.

BUT you need to ask yourself why you have an aborted saveset in the
first place!

Regards

Andrew

-----Original Message-----
From: EMC NetWorker discussion [mailto:NETWORKER < at > LISTSERV.TEMPLE.EDU]
On Behalf Of Davina Treiber
Sent: 19 July 2012 09:41
To: NETWORKER < at > LISTSERV.TEMPLE.EDU
Subject: Re: [Networker] How to recover an aborted tape ?

On 19/07/12 08:23, Manel Rodero Blanquez wrote:
Hi,

Thanks to all for the answers. I don't want to stage data. I don't
mind to have an aborted save set on the tape. I only want it to be
available for writing more data instead of being marked full.

I'll try the nsrmm command to see if it works. If I use the GUI for
marking as appendable the tape is not used so is worth the check ...

If it doesn't work from the GUI there's very little chance it will
work from nsrmm. The GUI is only calling nsrmm anyway.

Sometimes a load of garbage gets written when a session is aborted so
it might not be able to get past that.

What's the big deal over a part of one tape anyway? Tapes are cheap.

On 19/07/2012, at 8:06 PM, Davina Treiber wrote:

On 19/07/12 10:42, Manel Rodero Blanquez wrote:
Hi,

Yes, I know the cause of the abort saveset because it was a failover
problem of the library.

I can use another tape, because yes, they are cheap ... but this tape is
an LTO4 tape with only 1% of data on it and I would like to be able to
add more data to it without adding another tape, another tape number, etc.

If it's only 1% full it would be simple to stage the data off and
relabel it, as suggested by others.

Completely agree. Move the saveset off. Then, if you're really desperate to keep the tape, do a full end-to-end write of it before you use it to write more data to it.

Given the cost of tapes, just simply marking a tape as appendable after NetWorker has flagged it as full due to a write error is a risky decision in terms of long-term preservation of recoverability.

Cheers,
Preston.