bzs@world.std.com (Barry Shein) (07/09/90)
While we're on the topic, I wonder if people have seen this note which appeared in comp.os.vms? Executive Summary: Full VMS backups may contain no useful data. >I think the net might be interested in knowing about a bug which >is in standalone backup for VMS 5.2 and above. > >DEC knows about this bug and there's an article on DSIN (so I'm >told). However, what gets me is that DEC did not send any >notification about this problem to all of its customers -- >especially since the nature of the problem is so critical. >Consider this the notification :-} > > >The bug rears its ugly head when you try to restore files (using >either standalone or online backup) from a standalone backup >save of a disk volume-set. You'll see no errors during the >initial save nor during the restore. You'll also not see any >problems from VERIFY after the restore. In fact, DIRECTORY shows >that all the files are just fine. > >However, the information in the files is corrupt. I took a >sample of the files on the volume after a complete volume-set >restore (we lost an HDA on a member which required the complete >restore). I found a little under 1% of the files sampled to be >correct. These 'good' files had nothing in common either (i.e., >they were not restricted to a particular rvn of the volume-set). >Most of the files were empty, some had garbage, and some >contained the contents of other files. > > >In any case, do not rely on any standalone saves of disk >volume-sets for V5.2 and above. You therefore have two choices: > > a) use online BACKUP for backing up volume-sets under > VMS V5.2+; or, > b) use a standalone backup kit prior to V5.2. (If I > were you, I'd use a 4.x kit.) > >How unfortunate for us that we now have apparently lost all work >done since VMS V5.2. What was that? You say you your last >backup prior to V5.2 was in late August?.... -- -Barry Shein Software Tool & Die | {xylogics,uunet}!world!bzs | bzs@world.std.com Purveyors to the Trade | Voice: 617-739-0202 | Login: 617-739-WRLD