Multiple tape probkup issue

[jsingleton]

Progress v9.1D07 on Tru-64 V5.1B on HP/Compaq GS80/ES40 Cluster

We have a multi tape unattended probkup which is controlled by Unix scripting from cron. Recently we have observed that the second tape is not loading correctly and consequently the backup is failing. The scripts have been/are being checked through by HP.

My question is "Does anybody know if the message displayed by Progress when it wants a new tape has altered since an earlier version of Progress (v9.1D03) which was in use at the time the scripts were developed? A Unix 'expect' script is looking for this message and we believe it must match exactly".

I'd prefer not to post the scripts as there are literally dozens of them.

I know its clutching at straws but thanks in advance.

 

[ron]

Hello!

We had a slightly different problem - but it may relate to what you're experiencing - so I'll explain.

Our probkup involved manual tape changes - and had worked OK for a few years. Then we found that occasionally when probkup reached the end of a tape it would "fail" instead of asking for the next tape. After observing this for some time we decided that we might be able to work around the problem by simply not letting probkup reach the physical end of a tape.

We found that tape lengths vary a bit - but we experimented and found that if we set a volume size parameter of -vs 9400000 (in our case), probkup would always stop and ask for the next tape prior to hitting end-of-tape.

By doing this we found that the "fail" situation reduced in frequency by a very large margin.

Perhaps you might try a similar strategy and see if it helps.

Ron.

 

[jsingleton]

Ron,

Thanks for that. My problem was finally solved by some judicious reworking of our backup scripts by HP. There turned out to be a syntax error on one line which we had all missed (the script calls an 'expect' routine which no-one here knew anything about). However I will bear your comments in mind should that sort of thing happen here.

jsingleton