Indeed, verify is vital, and it can be done automatically right after the
backup overnite if you put the tape drive back online with the cunningly-named
'online' utility from Allegro.  Its scary how often something fails to verify,
but it can be a good guide to when to clean the heads or take an old tape out
of circulation.

It's also scary how easy it is to miss a verify-error message in a big job
listing, even if you try check it carefully.  So, in addition to the logging
routine I posted about a few weeks ago, I recently (err, yesterday) added the
following near the end of our backup job, so a quick look at the tail end of
the listing should tell me if there were any problems.  I'm far from sure that
I am checking all the right things and none of the wrong things, but it all
came out clean last night.  TS_FILES_FAILED_TO_RESTORE is the one I really,
really have to check.

!SETVAR  X   ""
!IF  STORE_ERROR <> 0    OR  STOREJCW <> 0
!    ECHO *WARNING* STORE_ERROR = !STORE_ERROR;   &
!                   STOREJCW = !STOREJCW
!    SETVAR  X   X   + "*"
!ENDIF
!IF  TS_FILES_NOT_STORED     <>  0 &
!OR  TS_DIRECTORIES_NOT_STORED   <>  0 &
!OR  TS_HFS_D_NOT_STORED         <>  0 &
!OR  TS_SYML_D_NOT_STORED        <>  0
!    ECHO ** WARNING -- NOT EVERYTHING WAS STORED **
!    SHOWVAR TS_@_NOT_STORED
!    SETVAR  X   X   + "*"
!ENDIF
!IF  TS_FILES_TO_RESTORE         <>  TS_FILES_RESTORED &
!OR  TS_FILES_FAILED_TO_RESTORE  <>  0 &
!OR  TS_HFS_D_FAILED_TO_RESTORE  <>  0 &
!OR  TS_SYML_D_FAILED_TO_RESTORE <>  0
(139/307) Continue?
!    ECHO ** WARNING -- NOT EVERYTHING WAS VERIFIED OK **
!    SHOWVAR TS_FILES_RESTORED,  TS_@_TO_RESTORE
!    SETVAR  X   X   + "*"
!ENDIF
!IF  TS_FILES_PARTLY_RESTORED    <>  0 &
!OR  TS_HFS_D_PART_RESTORED      <>  0 &
!OR  TS_SYML_D_PART_RESTORED     <>  0
!    ECHO ** WARNING -- SOME ITEMS ONLY PARTLY RESTORED **
!    SHOWVAR TS_@PART@
!    SETVAR  X   X   + "*"
!ENDIF

The 'x' variable is for our log.  I add it to the end of the the last log
record for the job and any backup that has a problem should stand out like a
sore thumb when I review the log, with extra '*' sticking out at the end of
the line.

Dave Powell,    MMfab

----- Original Message -----
From: "Richard S. French" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, April 27, 2005 10:20
Subject: Re: [HP3000-L] Help - Tape Restore Problem


> The problem of bad restore tapes happened to me many years ago, that's
> why I always recommend doing a 'validate' after the backup, just to be
> sure those tapes are indeed readable when you need them. I have found
> few that were willing to go this extra step, when it only involves
> mounting the tapes one more time.
>
>
> On Apr 27, 2005, at 11:54 AM, Wong, Wilson wrote:
>
> > Thanks Stan.  We have been working with our support provider,
> > Beechglen,
> > who has been wonderful to work with.
> >
> > The problem appeared to be with our tape drive and the scsi device it
> > was connected to.  Even though the backups showed the percentages
> > complete and gave us a detailed (30000+ lines) listing, it appears our
> > backups were not actually writing good data to the tape.
> >
> > We have had to piecemeal out account back by restoring what we can from
> > different tapes.  That is the strange part also.  It appears that the
> > partial backups were able to write a lot more good data than bad but
> > the
> > full backups were completely unusable.
> >
> > wilson
> >
>
> * To join/leave the list, search archives, change list settings, *
> * etc., please visit http://raven.utc.edu/archives/hp3000-l.html *
>

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