from: Edward L. Hendrickson
258K Metals Development
Ames Laboratory ISU/USDOE
Ames, IA 50011 515/294-3590
Subject: First release of BAKALL.IND backup procedure.
BAKALL.IND was written by Edward L.
Hendrickson of the Ames Laboratory at
Iowa State University as part of U.S.
Department of Energy contract
W-7405-ENG-82. The right to use this
software release is allowed in the
public domain. The author, Ames La-
boratory, and USDOE assume no respon-
sibility as to the correctness of the
code nor the appropriateness for such
use as it may be applied. Any com-
ments about this backup command pro-
cedure may be directed to the author
at 258K Metals Development, Ames La-
boratory, Ames, Iowa 50011.
BAKALL.IND RT-11 SIG DECUS Release 1 Spring 1987
1.0 GENERAL OVERVIEW
BAKALL.IND is an IND command file that automates the backup
process. It backs up a complete device to magnetic tape using
the BACKUP/DEVICE command. The code currently keeps track of
5 complete backup tape sets and 2 devices, DU0 and DU1. You
will most likely have to implement a few slight modifications
to make the command file work for you. I have commented the
code near the spots where you will probably need to make some
changes. All of the changes should be minor and usually in-
volve only changing tape volume names.
This version of BAKALL.IND is designed to run under TSX-plus.
It will use the display command and will open a log file.
RT-11 people who wish to use this command procedure will have
to live without the log file and can convert to Displa.Ind
contained in FLXIND.Dsk on this tape. Editing of BAKALL.IND
to modify "SET LOG ..." and "DISPLAY ..." commands will be re-
quired in this case. (DISPLAY will become @SY:DISPLA.IND .)
2.0 INSTALLATION AND IMPLEMENTAION.
There are only two files that you will need, BAKALL.IND and
TAPERF.DOC. TAPERF.DOC is a page of documentation that con-
tains current dates and locations of all backup sets. I have
included our current TAPERF.DOC for you to use as a guide.
You will have to customize TAPERF.DOC to fit your specific
needs. You should update TAPERF.DOC everytime you do a
backup. BAKALL.IND will open a log file and record all neces-
sary data needed to document each individual tape. This log
file includes a current directory, the date and time, what set
number this is, and the actual commands used to backup the
device. The PRINT command in BAKALL.IND will print TAPERF.DOC
and each .LOG file done for this backup set. I keep the cur-
rent TAPERF.DOC and all of the latest log files in a 3 ring
binder for easy access in case we actually have to use the
backups.
-1-
BAKALL.IND RT-11 SIG DECUS Release 1 Spring 1987
3.0 CAUTION
Before you depend on this command file too heavily I would
advise that you try a BACKUP/RESTORE to find out if you can
actually restore the tape. We have found that we have trouble
restoring single files and must use another program called
Bupres, (which was released on a previous RT SIG tape and has
been included in case you require it). Bupres may require
that you use RT-11 version 5.2 BUP; bad block management in
later versions is not known to be incorporated in Bupres. Of
course, if you have bad blocks on the disks being backed up,
you will have to use a BUP distributed with RT-11 version 5.3
or later, in which case you may need to BACKUP/RESTORE/DEVICE
to reload files.
The restoration of a single file from a backup tape was fixed
with version 5.4 of RT-11, with the exception that a disorgan-
ized directory may still prevent it from working. This can
also be a problem with Bupres. The workaround appears to be
to squeeze the disks that exhibit such a problem. Bad block
management appears also to be improved in version 5.4 . Tests
with version 5.4a have shown that restoration will work for an
individual file but that it still can fail with an invalid EMT
at location 26250 under certain circumstances. (The saga con-
tinues...)