ITEM: DX6714L

How to restore a parallel device in service mode

Question:

Env:
  AIX 4.2.1
  RISC F30
  sysback 3.3.3.17
  Tape 8mm 5gb, 7331-205 which contains two 8mm 7gb 

Problem:
  The customer create a full system backup to a Virtual Parallel 
  device
  It contained these tape drives: rmt0 (7gb 8mm), rmt1 (7gb 8mm)
  and rmt2 (5gb 8mm).

  The customer booted to service mode, but the tapes got 
  renumber to be this:  rmt0 (8mm 5gb), rmt1 (8mm 7gb), 
  rmt2 (8mm 7gb)

  Since the tapes are out of order the install failed.  I 
  cannot move the tapes between the three drives, since the 
  customer is using 160 meter tapes in the 7gb tape drives, 
  which will not work in the 5gb tape drive.

  I ended up having the customer change the scsi ids on all the
  tapes to change the order in which they are configured.  

  Is there a file(s) I can change to change the order in which 
  sysback accessed these tape drives as a work around in 
  service mode.
  

  Also as a new enhancment allow the user to to select the 
  order in which each tape is accessed.

  This could be a serious problem, if the customer has tape 
  drives that are totally different from one another and the 
  order cannot be changed
   

   
Response
--------
You did well changing the scsi ids as this will be less 
confusing for the customer in the future anyway. There is a 
file in the /tmp directory on the sysm in maintenance mode 
that contain the names of the installation device or devices. 
This is /tmp/instdev. It contains, one line at a time, the 
list of install devices. The devices shoudl be numbered in the 
list in the order they appear here.

Also, when selecting device names from the menu, they should be
placed in this file in the order selected. Therefore, you can 
deselect all devices if needed, then reselect in the order they
should be used. I cannot confirm this action at this time but 
this is how I believe it should work sicne there's no sorting 
of the device names in the file.

These changes are in sysback.rte 4.1.x.x

Closing with customer approval



Support Line: How to restore a parallel device in service mode ITEM: DX6714L

Dated: November 1997 Category: N/A

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