ATAPI tape backup problems

Paolo Galtieri (peg@caffeine.phx.mcd.mot.com)
Mon, 10 May 1999 06:37:40 -0700 (MST)


For the last several weeks I have been problems doing backups to my
ATAPI tape drive. I'v been seeing two different problems based on
how I do the backups.

If I use the following:

find . -print | cpio -ocvB > /dev/ht0

The backup will run for a few minutes and then stops, the cpio process
cannot be killed attempting to trace the cpio process will sometimes
cause strace to hang. A ps listing shows cpio in the down_failed
routine.

If I use the following:

tar cvf /dev/ht0 .

The backup runs for a long time, I don't know how long because I ran
it over night, but when I go to see if it completed the system is
dead. No keyboard no mouse no network it is dead. This has occured
on at least 3 occasions. None of the logs show anything.

Yesterday I upgraded to RH6.0 and re-ran the tar command above.
This time the system was still alive this morning, and here's what
the ps listing shows:

100 0 14373 566 0 0 1260 596 down_failed D 1 0:16 tar cvf /dev/ht0 .

I am running the 2.2.7 kernel with Alan's ac1 patch. My system is a
dual Pentium 350Mhz, the file system I'm backing up is an ext2 FS on
a SCSI disk. The SCSI controller is onboard the ASUS motherboard and
is an AIC7890. The FS contains about 33000 files and about 1GB worth
of data (mostly source files).

I have been able to backup smaller amounts of data.

Unfortunately I don't have the .config file, since I'm sending this
from work and the system having the problem is at home.

I am currently running the tape driver as a module, but the problem
occurs either way.

Any help in trying to resolve this problem would be appreciated.

Thanks
Paolo

-- 
Paolo Galtieri                            Senior Software Engineer
Motorola Computer Group                   INTERNET: peg@phx.mcd.mot.com
2900 S. Diablo Way                        VOICE: (602) 438 - 3754
Tempe, AZ 85282

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