mlj8e@mljsg.pharm.Virginia.EDU (Michael Johnson) (10/17/90)
I have a problem with Lifeline backups with PC-NFS (sun) and
I was hopeing someone out there might be able to help me.
I am trying to write backup tapes from my PC to our Silicon Graphics
4D80 server. Everything works fine if I write to a cartridge tape,
but fails with an LL011F error when I try to write to an Exabyte
8mm tape. However, I can read the Exabyte tapes with no problem.
The PC is an IBM P70-121 with a 3COM 3C523 board, PC-NFS 3.0.1
from SUN.
The Silicon Graphics is a 4D80 with NFS option running the latest
release of the OS (System V 3.3.1). The PCNFSD on the silicon graphics
was modified by silicon graphics to be compatible with system V instead
of BSD.
As I said above I can read and write tapes to the 60Mb cartridge
tape. And I can read, but not write to the exabyte tape. Incidently,
the exabyte works fine for dumps from our suns, mips and other
silicon graphics machines as well as local tar.
Can someone out there tell me the actual sequence of remote
shell commands with the PC-NFS tar (from SUN) is actually sending
to the server? Can anyone offer and suggestions?
Thanks for the help.
--
(804)-924-8607 Michael L. Johnson
mlj8e@mljsg.pharm.Virginia.EDU Pharmacology Dept.
mlj8e@Virginia.BITNET Box 448; Univ. of Va.
Charlottesville, Va. 22908pilger@uhunix1.uhcc.Hawaii.Edu (Eric Pilger) (10/19/90)
In article <1990Oct16.175419.10751@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU> mlj8e@mljsg.pharm.Virginia.EDU (Michael Johnson) writes: > > I have a problem with Lifeline backups with PC-NFS (sun) and . . >4D80 server. Everything works fine if I write to a cartridge tape, >but fails with an LL011F error when I try to write to an Exabyte >8mm tape. However, I can read the Exabyte tapes with no problem. > I ran into a problem where things would work for awhile, then fail at the same point each time. The error was something like LL011F. I believe the problem was timing out on the write request. When I switched from the failing Exabyte on a Sun 3 to an Exabytre on our Sun 490, things worked. Things also worked writing to a 1/4" drive on a Sparcstation. There seems to be some interplay between the speed of the machine, the type of tape drive, and time outs. (I am guessing I could also have fixed the problem by increasing the timeout tperiod for an NFS request.) > Can someone out there tell me the actual sequence of remote >shell commands with the PC-NFS tar (from SUN) is actually sending >to the server? Can anyone offer and suggestions? They are stored in backup.db in the NFS directory. They are something like "rsh dd if(of)=/dev/(your tape) bs=(your block size)." Eric Pilger Systems Programmer Nasa Infrared Telescope Facility
csb@gdwb.oz.au (Craig Bishop) (10/22/90)
pilger@uhunix1.uhcc.Hawaii.Edu (Eric Pilger) writes: >In article <1990Oct16.175419.10751@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU> mlj8e@mljsg.pharm.Virginia.EDU (Michael Johnson) writes: >> >> I have a problem with Lifeline backups with PC-NFS (sun) and >>4D80 server. Everything works fine if I write to a cartridge tape, >>but fails with an LL011F error when I try to write to an Exabyte >>8mm tape. However, I can read the Exabyte tapes with no problem. >> >I ran into a problem where things would work for awhile, then fail at >the same point each time. The error was something like LL011F. >I believe the problem was timing out on the write request. When I >switched from the failing Exabyte on a Sun 3 to an Exabytre on our Sun >490, things worked. Things also worked writing to a 1/4" drive on a >Sparcstation. There seems to be some interplay between the speed of >the machine, the type of tape drive, and time outs. (I am guessing I >could also have fixed the problem by increasing the timeout tperiod >for an NFS request.) We had the same problems which you described and we worked out a kludge which gets us round the problem. I have sent mail to Michael Johnson about our kludge and it worked for him also. We have SUNs also and when we upgraded to SunOS 4.1 we struck the above problem. It is due to Lifeline timing out but the reason it seems is that the SunOS 4.1 kernel no longer positions that tape correctly after a tape load or a tape rewind. The PC-lifeline will even fail in different places (but always near the start) depending on whether the tape has just been loaded or just rewound. We found that if we wrote a file to the non rewinding device we could then write successfully from the PC running PC-Lifeline. We use PC-Lifeline to backup all our PC's (about 60) to the one exabyte tape unit, since we have been writing this initial file from the server to the tape we have not had any problems. We have software running on the server and the PC's which handles which PC gets the exabyte. Sun are working on this problem and I believe that it has been accepted a a bug in the SunOS 4.1 kernel (not gospel). -- Craig Bishop Geelong & District Water Board Phone: +61 52 262506 61-67 Ryrie St Geelong Fax: +61 52 218236 Victoria 3220 Australia