Backup : dd command fails

[NoAR]

Hi,

I'm having an error while saving data on a tape.
0512-008 : The /usr/bin/dd command failed with return code of 2.
Backup canceled.

In fact, the daily backup worked fine thanks to crontab
(0 23 * * 1-5 /usr/bin/savevg -ivp rootvg). Now we have this error
everyday.

The whole message is :

"From: daemon
To: root
Création du fichier d'informations (/image.data) pour rootvg..
Création de la pseudo-image d'amorçage sur bande.........
0512-011 savevg : La commande /usr/bin/dd a échoué (code retour : 2).
Sauvegarde annulée.
******************************­******************************­*****
cron : le message précédent constitue la sortie standard
et l'erreur standard de l'une de vos commandes cron."

which approximatively means :

"Creation of the information file (/image.data) for rootvg..
Creation of the bootable pseudo-image on tape.........
0512-011 savevg : Command /usr/bin/dd failed (return code : 2).
Backup canceled.
******************************­******************************­*****
cron : the previous message is the standard output
and the standard error of one of your cron commands."

Does anybody know what the return code 2 does mean or how to solve this problem ? Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Arnaud

 

[MoshiachNow]

HI,

I would :

1.Check errpt for scsi/disk/filesystem errors on the destination disk.
2.Try running a manual dd command to the same destination.
3.Check your user file size limits.
4.Check your user access rights.

Long live king Moshiach !

http://www.7for70.com/

 

[NoAR]

Thank you for your response but in fact I don't know how to do what you suggest.

Last night, the backup failed again. But with a different error :
"Creation of the information file (/image.data) for rootvg..
Creation of the bootable pseudo-image on tape......... backup : 0511-447 Error while closing./dev/rmt0.1: The surface of the support is damaged.
0512-021 savevg : The attempt to create a boot tape failed (failure of mkinsttape /dev/rmt0.1 with return code 9).
But when I run usr/sbin/tapechk, it says "118-012 The first block on tape "/dev/rmt0" appears to be OK."
Maybe it's an hardware problem.

 

[MoshiachNow]

Now it looks like a HW tape error.

Please post the result of:

errpt|head -30

Thanks

Long live king Moshiach !

http://www.7for70.com/

 

[NoAR]

Thank you very much for responding.

(root)/> errpt|head -30
IDENTIFIER TIMESTAMP T C RESOURCE_NAME DESCRIPTION
C6ACA566 0725230305 U S syslog MESSAGE REDIRECTED FROM SYSLOG
C6ACA566 0725230205 U S syslog MESSAGE REDIRECTED FROM SYSLOG
4865FA9B 0725230205 P H rmt0 TAPE OPERATION ERROR
C6ACA566 0725175405 U S syslog MESSAGE REDIRECTED FROM SYSLOG
C6ACA566 0725175405 U S syslog MESSAGE REDIRECTED FROM SYSLOG
C6ACA566 0725175305 U S syslog MESSAGE REDIRECTED FROM SYSLOG
5DFED6F1 0725175305 I O SYSPFS UNABLE TO ALLOCATE SPACE IN FILE SYSTEM
2BFA76F6 0725175005 T S SYSPROC SYSTEM SHUTDOWN BY USER
9DBCFDEE 0725175305 T O errdemon ERROR LOGGING TURNED ON
192AC071 0725174905 T O errdemon ERROR LOGGING TURNED OFF
C6ACA566 0725174905 U S syslog MESSAGE REDIRECTED FROM SYSLOG
C6ACA566 0722230205 U S syslog MESSAGE REDIRECTED FROM SYSLOG
C6ACA566 0722230205 U S syslog MESSAGE REDIRECTED FROM SYSLOG
C6ACA566 0722230105 U S syslog MESSAGE REDIRECTED FROM SYSLOG
C6ACA566 0722230105 U S syslog MESSAGE REDIRECTED FROM SYSLOG
B617E928 0722230105 T H rmt0 TAPE OPERATION ERROR
4865FA9B 0722230105 P H rmt0 TAPE OPERATION ERROR
C6ACA566 0721230305 U S syslog MESSAGE REDIRECTED FROM SYSLOG
C6ACA566 0721230205 U S syslog MESSAGE REDIRECTED FROM SYSLOG
4865FA9B 0721230205 P H rmt0 TAPE OPERATION ERROR
C6ACA566 0720230405 U S syslog MESSAGE REDIRECTED FROM SYSLOG
C6ACA566 0720230305 U S syslog MESSAGE REDIRECTED FROM SYSLOG
4865FA9B 0720230305 P H rmt0 TAPE OPERATION ERROR
C6ACA566 0720141005 U S syslog MESSAGE REDIRECTED FROM SYSLOG
C6ACA566 0720140905 U S syslog MESSAGE REDIRECTED FROM SYSLOG
C6ACA566 0720140905 U S syslog MESSAGE REDIRECTED FROM SYSLOG
C6ACA566 0720140805 U S syslog MESSAGE REDIRECTED FROM SYSLOG
C6ACA566 0719230105 U S syslog MESSAGE REDIRECTED FROM SYSLOG
C6ACA566 0719230005 U S syslog MESSAGE REDIRECTED FROM SYSLOG

 

[MoshiachNow]

Right,

You have a HW issue with your rmt0 drive.

Long live king Moshiach !

http://www.7for70.com/

 

[NoAR]

Thank you for helping me out.

Arnaud

 

[hirschaj]

It is also possible that you are running out of space in /tmp when you try to create the backup. MoshiachNow is correct though that it looks like a HW issue. You might want to try a few cleaning passes to clear up the heads.


Jim Hirschauer

http://www.aixexpert.com

 

[NoAR]

The weird thing is that the server displays "clean soon" very more often than before... and I give it the clean-tape but nothing seems to change... it would prove that the heads or X?X are maybe going out of work...

I'll try to free space in /tmp though.

Thanks.

 

[hirschaj]

Sure, the tape drive may just be pretty much dead. If running the cleaning tape never fixes it I would guess it might be time for a new tape drive :-(


Jim Hirschauer

http://www.aixexpert.com

 

[NoAR]

Thank you Jim...

This morning the tape drive displays "Clean soon" whereas I cleaned it yesterday.
And the backup failed again with this "0512-011 savevg : La commande /usr/bin/dd a échoué (code retour : 2). Sauvegarde annulée." error message.

The tape drive is exhausted.

Thanks again for all your input.

Arnaud