My colleague was putting the same Backups (but at different levels:
0,1,2) into 1 tape everyday (i.e. he replaced the tape everyday). He
was doing it for quite some time now to save on tapes. When he tried to
restore it to another server, it was complaining that it was an invalid
archive level. The tape contained Backup Levels 0,1, and 2.



He's using IDS 7.31 on SCO Unix 5.0.5 and the tape device was pointing
to /dev/rStp0



What seems to be the problem?



Thanks.


--
Posted via http://dbforums.com

On Wed, 10 Sep 2003 14:08:26 -0400, antzz wrote:

I'll assume (dagerously) that your colleague is using hte no-rewind device for
TAPEDEV and/or using mt to position the tape to the next file for each
successive archive and not overwriting the previous archive. This plan works
fine for the archive itself but cannot be used to restore. Informix closes and
reopens the tape device several times at the beginning of the archive expecting
that it will rewind to the beginning of the archive each time. If you use the
norewind device the tape will not rewind when closed. Similarly if you use the
rewind device the when you try to restore the archive levels > 0 the tape will
rewind all the way to the beginning of the level 0 (hence the 'wrong level'
message) not to the beginning of the file. The solution is that before
beginning a restore from such a multi-volume archive you must copy the level 1
& level 2 to another tape or to a file using dd or some other tape aware tool.

Art S. Kagel

> My colleague was putting the same Backups (but at different levels: 0,1,2)
> into 1 tape everyday (i.e. he replaced the tape everyday). He was doing it
> for quite some time now to save on tapes. When he tried to restore it to
> another server, it was complaining that it was an invalid archive level. The
> tape contained Backup Levels 0,1, and 2.
>
>
>
> He's using IDS 7.31 on SCO Unix 5.0.5 and the tape device was pointing to
> /dev/rStp0
>
>
>
> What seems to be the problem?
>
>
>
> Thanks.
>
>
> --
> Posted via http://dbforums.com

Erm, I was going to answer this.
But you've said it all ....

"Art S. Kagel" <kagel@bloomberg.net> wrote in message
newsan.2003.09.10.15.27.27.451028.10594@bloomber g.net...
> On Wed, 10 Sep 2003 14:08:26 -0400, antzz wrote:
>
> I'll assume (dagerously) that your colleague is using hte no-rewind device
for
> TAPEDEV and/or using mt to position the tape to the next file for each
> successive archive and not overwriting the previous archive. This plan
works
> fine for the archive itself but cannot be used to restore. Informix
closes and
> reopens the tape device several times at the beginning of the archive
expecting
> that it will rewind to the beginning of the archive each time. If you use
the
> norewind device the tape will not rewind when closed. Similarly if you
use the
> rewind device the when you try to restore the archive levels > 0 the tape
will
> rewind all the way to the beginning of the level 0 (hence the 'wrong
level'
> message) not to the beginning of the file. The solution is that before
> beginning a restore from such a multi-volume archive you must copy the
level 1
> & level 2 to another tape or to a file using dd or some other tape aware
tool.
>
> Art S. Kagel