Backing up to tape device

[Former Member]

Hi Folks,

Im trying to backup Sybase IQ16 to tape drive (a 24 slot autoloader) but facing an issue that cannot make it work through the backup command. For some reason the db returns : SQL Anywhere Error -697: Error during backup/restore: cannot determine if device is tape or diskfile (Not a directory). Library has been configured as sequential. I manage to access it and load tapes without issues using mtx however no joy through sql. Statement that im using is the below :

BACKUP DATABASE

BLOCK FACTOR 25

ATTENDED OFF

CRC OFF

FULL

to '/dev/sg263/iq.dmp2' SIZE 8000000 STACKER 24

go

Tape drive deviec is changer-sg263 / sg 263 :

mtx -f /dev/changer-sg263 status

  Storage Changer /dev/changer-sg263:2 Drives, 24 Slots ( 0 Import/Export )

Data Transfer Element 0:Empty

Data Transfer Element 1:Empty

      Storage Element 1:Full :VolumeTag=DJN722L4

      Storage Element 2:Full :VolumeTag=LTB356L4

      Storage Element 3:Full :VolumeTag=LTB355L4

      Storage Element 4:Full :VolumeTag=LTB354L4

      Storage Element 5:Full :VolumeTag=LTB358L4

      Storage Element 6:Full :VolumeTag=LTB357L4

      Storage Element 7:Full :VolumeTag=LTB349L4

      Storage Element 8:Full :VolumeTag=DJN721L4

      Storage Element 9:Full :VolumeTag=LTB359L4

      Storage Element 10:Full :VolumeTag=DJN723L4

      Storage Element 11:Full :VolumeTag=DJN724L4

      Storage Element 12:Full :VolumeTag=DJN725L4

      Storage Element 13:Full :VolumeTag=LTB343L4

      Storage Element 14:Full :VolumeTag=LTB342L4

      Storage Element 15:Full :VolumeTag=LTB341L4

      Storage Element 16:Full :VolumeTag=LTB340L4

      Storage Element 17:Full :VolumeTag=LTB347L4

      Storage Element 18:Full :VolumeTag=LTB346L4

      Storage Element 19:Full :VolumeTag=LTB345L4

      Storage Element 20:Full :VolumeTag=LTB344L4

      Storage Element 21:Full :VolumeTag=LTB352L4

      Storage Element 22:Full :VolumeTag=LTB350L4

      Storage Element 23:Full :VolumeTag=DJN720L4

      Storage Element 24:Full :VolumeTag=LTB353L4

[root@bin]#

Any help would be appreciated , maybe how to properly construct the sql to access the archive device.

Many thanks!

Etienne.

[Former Member]

Could it be that the tape drive is not supported by Sybase IQ and it doesnt manage to read the tape ? To be honest im using LTO4 tape drive which is not in the supported list of hardware however i dont know if its true that it just supports DLT & DDS cos for the db use you end up with many many tapes no ?

Thanks

Etienne.

[john_ting]

we dont certifiy any specific disk subsystem or tape drive .

So basically we will support your  IQ  server

running on any disk subsystem certified by

the OS vendor running on their platforms.

Hope this helps

regards

John

[Former Member]

Hi John

Thanks for your reply, so basically an LTO4 then is supported and the tape drives listed in the documentation are just an examples right ?

<below excerpt from IQ16 documentation>

SAP Sybase IQ BACKUP can support the following tape drives: • Digital Linear Tape (DLT) on UNIX systems • 4 mm Digital Data Storage (DDS) Data Backup, Recovery, and Archiving 4 SAP Sybase IQ • 8 mm

Thanks!

Etienne.

[john_ting]

so far I don't see anything saying LTO4 is unsupported, but I would go with the latest recommendation  from the IQ 16x documentation if possible

regards

John