Marco wrote:
 
>>Does anyone know of a program that can be used to validate a NMSTORE or
>>CMSTORE tape done on a DAT drive?  I am running a 967 on MPE/ix 5.0.
>>Marco Martin
 
Steve replied:
 
>I use VSTORE right after the backup for NM Stores.  Vstore is great, but for
>added security, I added a file called ZZZ.ZZZZ.ZZZZ (to put it at the end of
>the tape) and as part of my :STORE, :VSTORE procedure, added a :RESTORE to
>verify that at least that one file can be located and successfully restored
>from the DDS.  Apparently, (as it was explained to me) Vstore will check the
>validity of the backup, but it doesn't really ensure that you can restore
>files from the DDS.
 
>Correct me if I'm wrong, and I'll stand corrected
 
I assume that your validation scheme goes something a follows:
 
  1. I want control of which file is the 'last' file on the tape.
  2. If I can restore the 'last' file on the media there is a better chance
that all the files before it will be 'OK'.
 
I don't have any problems with your scheme, the only thing that I want to
point out is the fact that if you are on MPE/iX 5.0, or whichever version
posix entered the picture, 'ZZZ.ZZZZ.ZZZZ' will NOT be the last file on the
media unless you take explicit measures to assure that it is.
 
With the arrival of posix and HFS and all the lower case directory/file
names that posix allows, something like '/etc/....' would end up in your
media after your sentinel file.
 
Your scheme would work as you expect if the store command was modified to:
  store / - ZZZ.ZZZZ.ZZZZ, ZZZ.ZZZZ.ZZZZ;*tape;.....
 
Regards
 
Paul H. Christidis