I've been working on restoring some 8-year old Solaris tapes on
Solaris 10 x86 and recently ran into some unrecognized tape files,
i.e., "Volume is not in dump format".  An od reveals that they are
indeed NOT ufsdumps, but what are they?  They are NOT cpio or tar.
Anyone have any ideas?

For kicks, here's what a ufsdump header looks like (see the \0 \0 352
signature?):

"0000000  \0  \0  \0 001   :   V   ~   m  \0  \0  \0  \0  \0  \0  \0
001
0000020  \0  \0  \0  \0  \0 007 233 277  \0  \0 352   l   $ 240   Q
1
0000040  \0  \0  \0  \0  \0  \0  \0  \0  \0  \0  \0  \0  \0  \0  \0
\0"

And here are two sample headers:

"0000000  \0  \0  \0 001   :   V 177 316  \0  \0  \0  \0  \0  \0  \0
001
0000020  \0  \0  \0  \0  \0  \b 343 377  \0  \0   v   x 334 316
331   ,
0000040  \0  \0 020  \0  \0 251   _   `   /   v   a   r   /   a   l
i"
....

"0000000  \0  \0  \0 001   6 273 224  \f  \0  \0  \0  \0  \0  \0  \0
001
0000020  \0  \0  \0  \0  \0 002 310 237  \0  \0   v   x 337 356 333
u
0000040  \0  \0 004  \0  \0 251   _   `   /   v   a   r   /   a   l
i"
....

The single quote (~45) is followed by the original source.  Help!

Respectfully,
Tim
-----
Visit <a href="http://torque.gig8.com">Tim's Journal</a>, yes?

On May 15, 10:20 am, torque <tor...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I've been working on restoring some 8-year old Solaris tapes on
> Solaris 10 x86 and recently ran into some unrecognized tape files,
> i.e., "Volume is not in dump format".  An od reveals that they are
> indeed NOT ufsdumps, but what are they?  They are NOT cpio or tar.
> Anyone have any ideas?

Are they SPARC ufsdumps?  I'm not sure if ufsdump is endian-neutral
(in fact I am fairly sure it is not)

Tim Bradshaw wrote:
> Are they SPARC ufsdumps?  I'm not sure if ufsdump is endian-neutral
> (in fact I am fairly sure it is not)

ufsrestore on x86 can read sparc dumps and viceversa.
IIRC, long ago that was not the case and it was fixed by some 
ufsdump/ufsrestore patches.

On May 15, 5:16 am, Oscar del Rio <del...@mie.utoronto.ca> wrote:
> Tim Bradshaw wrote:
> > Are they SPARC ufsdumps?  I'm not sure if ufsdump is endian-neutral
> > (in fact I am fairly sure it is not)
>
> ufsrestore on x86 can read sparc dumps and viceversa.
> IIRC, long ago that was not the case and it was fixed by some
> ufsdump/ufsrestore patches.

The utfsdumps, which most of the tape files are, work perfectly.  You
can even restore them with "restore" in Linux.  It's the other stuff
(the two samples) that are wierd and probably not utfsdumps.  Besides
ufsdump, tar and cpio, anyone out there have an idea on what other
backup techniques were in vogue on Solaris 1999-2001?

On May 15, 5:10 pm, torque <tor...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On May 15, 5:16 am, Oscar del Rio <del...@mie.utoronto.ca> wrote:
>
> > Tim Bradshaw wrote:
> > > Are they SPARC ufsdumps?  I'm not sure if ufsdump is endian-neutral
> > > (in fact I am fairly sure it is not)
>
> > ufsrestore on x86 can read sparc dumps and viceversa.
> > IIRC, long ago that was not the case and it was fixed by some
> > ufsdump/ufsrestore patches.
>
> The utfsdumps, which most of the tape files are, work perfectly.  You
> can even restore them with "restore" in Linux.  It's the other stuff
> (the two samples) that are wierd and probably not utfsdumps.  Besides
> ufsdump, tar and cpio, anyone out there have an idea on what other
> backup techniques were in vogue on Solaris 1999-2001?

NetBackup or Legato???

On May 15, 4:10 pm, torque <tor...@gmail.com> wrote:

>
> The utfsdumps, which most of the tape files are, work perfectly.  You
> can even restore them with "restore" in Linux.  It's the other stuff
> (the two samples) that are wierd and probably not utfsdumps.  Besides
> ufsdump, tar and cpio, anyone out there have an idea on what other
> backup techniques were in vogue on Solaris 1999-2001?

Other than NBU or Legato as mentioned by someone else, amanda writes a
label file as the first file on the tape.  My memory is that you can
just dd this off the tape and it's text though, probably containing
the tape label.  Following that file are tar or dump files, so it
might be worth fsfing past it to see what is next, if anything.

Tim Bradshaw <tfb+google@tfeb.org> writes:

>On May 15, 10:20 am, torque <tor...@gmail.com> wrote:
>> I've been working on restoring some 8-year old Solaris tapes on
>> Solaris 10 x86 and recently ran into some unrecognized tape files,
>> i.e., "Volume is not in dump format".  An od reveals that they are
>> indeed NOT ufsdumps, but what are they?  They are NOT cpio or tar.
>> Anyone have any ideas?

>Are they SPARC ufsdumps?  I'm not sure if ufsdump is endian-neutral
>(in fact I am fairly sure it is not)

It is not but restore should be endian adaptive...

Casper
-- 
Expressed in this posting are my opinions.  They are in no way related
to opinions held by my employer, Sun Microsystems.
Statements on Sun products included here are not gospel and may
be fiction rather than truth.

On May 15, 9:05 am, Tim Bradshaw <tfb+goo...@tfeb.org> wrote:
> On May 15, 4:10 pm, torque <tor...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>
> > The utfsdumps, which most of the tape files are, work perfectly.  You
> > can even restore them with "restore" in Linux.  It's the other stuff
> > (the two samples) that are wierd and probably not utfsdumps.  Besides
> > ufsdump, tar and cpio, anyone out there have an idea on what other
> > backup techniques were in vogue on Solaris 1999-2001?
>
> Other than NBU or Legato as mentioned by someone else, amanda writes a
> label file as the first file on the tape.  My memory is that you can
> just dd this off the tape and it's text though, probably containing
> the tape label.  Following that file are tar or dump files, so it
> might be worth fsfing past it to see what is next, if anything.

Aha!  Sources for the non-working "dumps" all have "/vx/rdsk/" in
them.  That suggests a Veritas filesystem (vxfs).  There are
specialized dump and restore (vxdump, vxrestore) for this.  Any one
know how I can get vxrestore working on a Solaris 10 x86 box?

In article <1179264755.303993.114670@n59g2000hsh.googlegroups.com>,
 torque <torque@gmail.com> wrote:

> On May 15, 9:05 am, Tim Bradshaw <tfb+goo...@tfeb.org> wrote:
> > On May 15, 4:10 pm, torque <tor...@gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> >
> >
> > > The utfsdumps, which most of the tape files are, work perfectly.  You
> > > can even restore them with "restore" in Linux.  It's the other stuff
> > > (the two samples) that are wierd and probably not utfsdumps.  Besides
> > > ufsdump, tar and cpio, anyone out there have an idea on what other
> > > backup techniques were in vogue on Solaris 1999-2001?
> >
> > Other than NBU or Legato as mentioned by someone else, amanda writes a
> > label file as the first file on the tape.  My memory is that you can
> > just dd this off the tape and it's text though, probably containing
> > the tape label.  Following that file are tar or dump files, so it
> > might be worth fsfing past it to see what is next, if anything.
> 
> Aha!  Sources for the non-working "dumps" all have "/vx/rdsk/" in
> them.  That suggests a Veritas filesystem (vxfs).  There are
> specialized dump and restore (vxdump, vxrestore) for this.  Any one
> know how I can get vxrestore working on a Solaris 10 x86 box?

AFAIK, Veritas Volume 5.0 was a SPARC-only.  The older version 4.1 runs 
on Solaris 10 x64.

http://www.symantec.com/enterprise/theme.jsp?themeid=sfbasic

If you're attempting to restore files from this backup from 1999-2001,  
it's most likely from a SPARC system.  I doubt the SPARC ufsdump files 
will work on Linux regardless of if the system was running Veritas or 
not.  

You might try getting a cheap SPARC system from eBay, a compatible tape 
drive, and a copy of Solaris 10.  You'll probably be able to get at the 
files on the tape from this sort of system.

-- 
DeeDee, don't press that button!  DeeDee!  NO!  Dee...