Tape Backups

how to use the dds-4

Tape Backups 

Here's how to use the tape, in a nutshell.

The tape is on helen.cs-i aka dendrite.

Use DDS-2 (8/16 gb) DDS-3 (12/24 gb) or DDS-4 (20/40 gb) tapes. 

Automatic bakups happen at night, at or after 1am. So:

* Use the tape only between 9am and 1230 am.
* If there is a tape in the drive, don't forget
  to put it back in after you finish.

Use the "tape" (/usr/local/bin/tape) command on helen:

tape status:    Info on current tape status
tape rewind:    Rewind to BOT
tape eject:     Eject cassette
tape fsf N      Skip over N recordings
tape feom       Goto end of recorded, ready to append at end of tape

tape tar        Call tar on tape, example:

                tape tar cv . Will dump contents of current directory 
                              into tape
                tape tar tv . Lists contents of tape
                tape tar xv   Reads files from tape into current dir on disk


tape read
tape write      Bulk read/write to/from standard input; example:
                tape.write < huge.file Dumps the contents of huge 
                file to tape

                Use tape.read/tape.write to write/read from pipes to 
                the tape, for example

                tar cvf - . | ssh -c blowfish helen.cs-i 'tape.write'

                (executes tar on remote machine and writes to Helen's
                tape unit)



Relevant man pages:

man mt
man tar
man st
tape help