🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <16105@umd5.umd.edu>, bleau@umdsp.umd.edu writes:
> I've been using non-Exabyte cartridges for a while now with no problems.  I
> mainly use them once, though, to back files onto, and only rarely do a read
> on them to retrieve files.  The tapes I'm using are Sony P6-120MP metal
> partical tapes.

When I first set up an automated backup procedure using an 8mm drive, I (and
many others) didn't completely trust the drive.  So I created a few megabytes
worth of test files, put them in a directory made for the purpose, and had the
backup procedure create a small saveset, with /VERIFY, containing just these
files at both the beginning AND end of the 8mm cart.

Also, in most backup procedures, some of the tapes (e.g. dailies, weeklies,
whatever) get re-used.  My procedure could tell (from the volume label) if
the tape it was about to write on was being reused.  If so it would start by
doing a BACKUP/COMPARE of these two test savesets against the files from which
they were written.

The result was that we had a daily confirmation that at least some of the data
we'd written to 8mm was indeed recoverable... and  not just from the beginning
of the tape, either.

imho, if you don't do SOMEthing to periodically test your restore procedures
(and the media),  you might as well not run backups at all.

	--- Jamie Hanrahan, Kernel Mode Consulting, San Diego CA
uucp 'g' protocol guru and release coordinator, VMSnet (DECUS uucp) W.G., and
Chair, VMS Programming and Internals Working Group, U.S. DECUS VAX Systems SIG
Internet:  jeh@cmkrnl.com, hanrahan@eisner.decus.org, or jeh@crash.cts.com
Uucp:  ...{crash,eisner,uunet}!cmkrnl!jeh