ITEM: AI1769L

Sysback restore problem.



Question:

Bruce Figura cannot contact Randy Olson but system is down.
.ENV: C10 aix325.
.DESC: Customer attempted to reload from sysback tape but 
gets header block error and restore stops.
.ACT: suggested he clean tape drive and try another sysback tape.
.NEXT: closing pcb.

Response:

DESC:   Randy tried to reinstall the entire system consisting of
        2 volume groups using a SYSBACK/6000 tape.  He booted
        off the sysback tape and started a full system backup. This
        ran for a little while- long enough to create the volume
        groups, logical volumes and then restore about 100 files
        before failing with:

                Error  Missing Header Block  
                Attempt to Resync after error

*********************************************************
        Austext shows:
         "It sounds like the problem with the libc.a and fwrite at
                3.2.5R. (3.2.5 E3 Oct '94  Release Notes 1.3)

        A problem was found in AIX 3.2.5 Enhancement 3 with the fwrite
        subroutine in libc.  A technical description of the problem
        follows.  This problem exists in the following AIX 3.2.5 PTFs:
        U432990, U433061, U433288, U433563, U433872, U434069
        The problem is fixed in PTF U434997, which is currently available.
        When sysback ver 3 reads the data it uses this method:
        sbread | restore
        The sbread command uses the fwrite to send the data to stdout
        So since the fwrite command is messed up it will cause the data
        to look corrupt even though the data is not."
*********************************************************

        Currently the customer has already reinstalled base AIX 3.2.5
        from an install tape.  When he tries to restore individual files
        from the sysbcak tape, it fails with the same 'Header Block'
        error.

Next:   Randy will complete the installation of lpps from the
        install tape including tcpip.obj.

        Then:
                configure tcpip
                ftp to aix.boulder.ibm.com (198.17.57.66)
                download the fixdist application
                install/configure fixdist
                download the Sysback/libc.a fix U434997
                run 'inutoc' on the download directory to create a .toc
                run 'smit install' to install U434997
                create a new sysback boot image and try and restore the
                entire sysback tape, or just restore individual
                filesystems from the Sysback tape

        wocb on progress

Response:

DESC:   Customer is now installing LPPs after re-install AIX.  The
        installation failed because bosboot ran out of space in /tmp.

ACT:    Had the customer run bosboot -a -d /dev/hdisk0 after making
        sure there was at least 7MB of space free in /tmp.  The bosboot
        ran without errors.  Next I had the customer run lppchk -v to
        verify the software just installed, but it returned with pages
        of errors.  Had the customer run:

        ifreq | installp -BNXacgq -d /dev/rmt0.1 -f - 2>&1 /tmp/log

        After the command completed, checked the log created and found
        that it was empty.  Ran lppchk -v and it came back clean this
        time.  Re-ran bosboot, which also completed successfully.

        Next, helped the customer get FixDist from aix.boulder.ibm.com
        via anonymous FTP and use it to obtain U434997 which was
        identified previously as the fix needed to allow him to restore
        successfully from his Sysback/6000 backup tape.

        Customer will install U434997 and call back for further assist-
        ance with restoring files selectively from his tape.

NEXT:   WOCB.

Response:

Response:

The customer does not need to rebuild his system from scratch to fix
this problem.  The customer has another systems with this fix already
applied to it.  On that system with the fwrite fix create a bootable
sysback full system diskettes. Boot up the down system from these 
diskettes and change the input device from the floppy to the tape drive
and start the install from the sysback full system backup tape.
That fixed the problem the customer was able to 
reinstall his system from his backup.  Now the customer can apply the 
needed fix U434997 to the system.   

The reason the above solution
is a bad idea is the customer would lose many days of configurations
that are stored in the ODM.  Also the time it would take to get the
system set up exactly the way it was before.  This method is much 
faster with no configuation or data loss. 

Order the ptf for the customer.
PMR:  3X295-378

PRIORITY:  1 (X,1-3)  SEND LATEST SUPERSEDE Y                            
MEDIA:     _ 1/4 INCH TAPE    X 8MM TAPE    _ DISKETTE    _ 4MM TAPE     
PB QUEUE:  close_   SHIP INCOMPLETE ORDER:  Y   PMP LEVEL:  3250
  
APAR/PTF/VOLID:   U434997

THE FOLLOWING PTFS HAVE BEEN ORDERED:
U434997 (3250)
EVERYTHING HAS BEEN ORDERED  

Response:


Support Line: Sysback restore problem. ITEM: AI1769L
Dated: November 1995 Category: N/A
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