FW: Help with ontape to disk or remote tape drive (AIX 4.2.1, IDS

This is a plea for help from knowledgeable UNIX and Informix users: > We have a need to backup a 26Gb (IDS 7.21.UD2) database residing on a AIX > server. > However, we have no tape drives attached to this server. > > We tried to write the backup to disk. However, it died after writing to 2 > Gbytes of data. > Is there a way to circumvent this 2GB limitation with ontape? Such as > writing multiple files? > > We also have a tape drive attached to another server. > However, we do not know how to access this remote tape drive from ontape. > Therefore, we were trying to create a file system that could be NFS > mounted to > the server with the tape drive. Is there a way to directly access this > remote tape drive? > > Any assistance in solving this dilemma would be greatly appreciated. > > Thanks, > Rick > > Rick Bernstein > Principal Database Administrator > Alaris Medical Systems > rbernste@alarismed.com >

Rick; The first thing I'd suggest is getting off the IDS 7.21 as that is a very buggy/bad version. It caused us numberous crashes. The newer version 7.30 is much better. I would also suggest the nfs method to mount the tape drive (as you've suggested). Though I've never tried it myself. So my question is does this work? Can a tape drive be mounted via nfs? I'll check into this. I'm very interested as we have the same platform and similar situation. Jeff "Bernstein, Rick" wrote: > > This is a plea for help from knowledgeable UNIX and Informix users: > > > We have a need to backup a 26Gb (IDS 7.21.UD2) database residing on a AIX > > server. > > However, we have no tape drives attached to this server. > > > > We tried to write the backup to disk. However, it died after writing to 2 > > Gbytes of data. > > Is there a way to circumvent this 2GB limitation with ontape? Such as > > writing multiple files? > > > > We also have a tape drive attached to another server. > > However, we do not know how to access this remote tape drive from ontape. > > Therefore, we were trying to create a file system that could be NFS > > mounted to > > the server with the tape drive. Is there a way to directly access this > > remote tape drive? > > > > Any assistance in solving this dilemma would be greatly appreciated. > > > > Thanks, > > Rick > > > > Rick Bernstein > > Principal Database Administrator > > Alaris Medical Systems > > rbernste@alarismed.com > >

Rick; I've just checked out mounting a tape drive as an 'NFS' volume. My sources and manuals indicate this won't work. So if you've figured this out please enlighten us. Finally, do you have the ISM? If so, have you tried using this tool for creating a disk backup? Jeff Jeff Kent wrote: > > Rick; > > The first thing I'd suggest is getting off the IDS 7.21 as that > is a very buggy/bad version. It caused us numberous crashes. > The newer version 7.30 is much better. > > I would also suggest the nfs method to mount the tape drive (as you've > suggested). Though I've never tried it myself. So my question is does > this work? Can a tape drive be mounted via nfs? I'll check into this. > I'm very interested as we have the same platform and similar situation. > > Jeff > > "Bernstein, Rick" wrote: > > > > This is a plea for help from knowledgeable UNIX and Informix users: > > > > > We have a need to backup a 26Gb (IDS 7.21.UD2) database residing on a AIX > > > server. > > > However, we have no tape drives attached to this server. > > > > > > We tried to write the backup to disk. However, it died after writing to 2 > > > Gbytes of data. > > > Is there a way to circumvent this 2GB limitation with ontape? Such as > > > writing multiple files? > > > > > > We also have a tape drive attached to another server. > > > However, we do not know how to access this remote tape drive from ontape. > > > Therefore, we were trying to create a file system that could be NFS > > > mounted to > > > the server with the tape drive. Is there a way to directly access this > > > remote tape drive? > > > > > > Any assistance in solving this dilemma would be greatly appreciated. > > > > > > Thanks, > > > Rick > > > > > > Rick Bernstein > > > Principal Database Administrator > > > Alaris Medical Systems > > > rbernste@alarismed.com > > >